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Chandigarh Congress: Rift widens as six Chhabra loyalists resign
Former Chandigarh Congress chief Pardeep Chhabra has been targeting party leadership for “ignoring and sidelining” him and his loyalists
Dissidence against the incumbent leadership in the Chandigarh Congress continues to brew as six more leaders resigned from the primary membership of the party on Wednesday.
The development comes two days after the former general secretary, Sandeep Bhardwaj, had quit.
Those who resigned are former general secretaries of District Congress Committee Jagdeep Mahajan, Rajneesh Bhardwaj and Charanjeet Sharma; former vice-presidents Dinesh Sharma and Beant Singh; and former secretary Harvinder Singh Goldy.
All of them were considered loyal to party’s former city chief Pardeep Chhabra, who had been criticising the Congress leadership for “ignoring and sidelining” him and his loyalists.
The phrasing of the resignation letters was same and all were addressed to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. They all blamed “high handedness” of former party MP Pawan Kumar Bansal for their resignations.
The disgruntled voices in the Congress have been growing ever since Chhabra was replaced by Subhash Chawla as the new city chief in February this year.
However, the internal crisis deepened after Chawla announced his new executive committee.
The 133 new office-bearers, alleged Chhabra, didn’t include his loyalists. He also claimed that the party made the appointments based on not merit but “money and sycophancy”. Chawla and Bansal are the main recipients of his criticism.
The allegation has been strong refuted by Chawla, who has maintained that he has retained nearly 99% of Chhabra’s team in the new committee.
Notably, the new Congress appointees are slated to meet on Thursday at the Congress Bhawan in Sector 35. Chawla has ensured that this time, Chhabra has been informed and invited to the meeting.
