I offered to resign after poll verdict: Capt

Though his party has set a deadline to his captaincy,he remains unruffled.

Though his party has set a deadline to his captaincy,he remains unruffled. State Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh,who landed in Chandigarh from New Delhi on Wednesday to kickstart the party’s preparations for municipal corporation polls,expressed ignorance about statement of AICC Spokesman Janardan Dwivedi last month where he had said that Amarinder would retain the presidency of Punjab Congress till civic polls in the state.

Claiming that the party has not conveyed any deadline to him,Amarinder said: “I don’t know what Janardan Dwivedi had said. I have neither met nor spoken to him. It is totally up to party president Sonia Gandhi if she wishes to have a new president in Punjab. I had offered to resign the day I met her in New Delhi after the verdict.”

On the report of the committee headed by Defence Minister A K Antony on Assembly polls,Amarinder said that whatever he knows is through media reports. “By and large,the report has pointed out wrong selection of candidates,party rebels and our poll campaign failing to portray corruption of the Badals to counter their propaganda on various scams of the UPA government. As far as list of candidate goes,I accept the responsibility for the choice of candidates. Party president Sonia Gandhi does not know about each individual candidate. It was our duty to put up the right candidates in the list. As one heading the Punjab Congress,I submitted the list of candidates for Punjab. We did our best to select the right people but sometimes you can go wrong even with the best of intentions,” he added.

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Reiterating that the main damage came from party rebels who remained in the fray,Amarinder said that in the Doaba belt,Dera Sachkhand Ballan not voting for the Congress cost the party many seats. On selection of candidates,he said that the Antony panel’s observation is just not a reflection on Punjab but also other states like Uttar Pradesh,which went to polls simultaneously.

While Amarinder accepts the responsibility for candidates fielded,sources in the Congress said the five-member screening committee — headed by Union Minister C P Joshi and comprising Delhi unit president J P Aggarwal,Punjab affairs in-charge Gulchain Singh Charak and then leader of opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Amarinder — had changed over 30 candidates in the list. “The Youth Congress candidates were also decided by New Delhi and altered the equations in as many seats as they were fielded. The final list was out only after loyalists and kin of many senior party leaders were accommodated,” one of his close aides said.

But his detractors within the party are viewing Dwivedi’s statement as one that signals Amarinder’s departure after the civic polls.

“For someone of Amarinder’s stature,a party spokesman will not make such a statement and neither did Dwivedi deny it after it was reported by the media. It purely seems to be a case of ignorance is bliss,” a senior leader said.

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