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Rift in Chandigarh Congress: Ex-president Chhabra quits party
The resignation comes a day after the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee decided to issue a show-cause notice to Chhabra for his “anti-party” activities
After a six-month-long open spat with the incumbent Chandigarh Congress leadership, the party’s former local unit chief Pardeep Chhabra on Friday resigned from its primary membership.
The resignation comes a day after the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee decided to issue a show-cause notice to Chhabra for his “anti-party” activities. There were strong indications that he would be ousted from the party.
Chhabra, in his resignation letter addressed to All India Congress Committee interim president Sonia Gandhi, blamed former Chandigarh MP and party’s national treasurer Pawan Bansal for his resignation.
“I was being treated as a puppet who was controlled by Bansal. I had no other option but to take this step, which I hadn’t imagine even in my dreams, because of the dictatorial attitude of Bansal,” he wrote in the letter.
Since his removal from the post of the Chandigarh Congress president in February earlier this year, Chhabra has been a vocal critic of the party’s local leadership. Initially, his criticism was directed towards his successor, Subhash Chawla, but in the last couple of weeks, he started questioning Bansal’s role in the local unit’s working.
In the resignation letter, Chhabra further wrote: “Bansal has been running the party like a private company. Due to his ego, I was removed from the post of CTCC president without any intimation.”
Points to party’s losing streak
Claiming the “Congress is dying”, Chhabra stated in the letter that since the 2013 railway scam, involving Bansal’s kin, the party has lost all elections in Chandigarh, including that to the Lok Sabha, municipal corporation, block president and gram panchayat.
Expressing his frustration with the national party leadership, Chhabra wrote: “I repeatedly wrote via e-mail to Rahul Gandhi, Venugopal, party incharge Harish Rawat and also to your good self (Sonia Gandhi), but unfortunately got no response from anyone, which ultimately forced me to take this huge step.”
According to party insiders, Chhabra, who had been a long-time Bansal loyalist, had a fallout with the senior Congress leader over his role in the party. “They had a different view over what should be his future in the party. Chhabra was looking for a bigger role, but instead was shunted out from the president’s post,” said a party leader, requesting anonymity.
A close aide of Chhabra said one of the contentious issue between the two related to the entry of a family member of Bansal into the city’s politics.
On Chhabra’s allegations against him, Bansal said: “It does not merit a response.”
Meanwhile, Chawla, commenting on Chhabra’s resignation, said: “The Congress is a big party, and people come and go. But the language used by Chhabra in his resignation letter is very disappointing.”
Factionalism in election year
The factionalism in the Congress has come to the centre stage at a time when the party is looking to reclaim the electoral ground lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“Chhabra has been associated with the party for the past 35 years. He was a councillor for 15 years, and also a former mayor. He was the party president for the nearly six years. He might not be able to push senior leaders to break the ranks, but at the grassroots, he can get support from the disgruntled elements, which can create a problem for the Congress in the crucial election year,” said a Congress leader, requesting anonymity.
Notably, so far, seven other Congress leaders have resigned from the party primary membership in support of Chhabra.
“There are strong prospects that Chhabra would either join the Aam Aadmi Party or extend support to it in the MC elections. He has a long association with AAP election in-charge Chander Mukhi Sharma and shares a good equation with him,” said the leader.
However, Chawla maintained that Chhabra’s resignation would not affect the party’s chances in the MC elections.
On his future course of action, Chhabra said that he would consult his supporters before taking any decision.
