Nirvan Singh, another example of dynasty politics in Punjab Congress

The Punjab Congress has been denying the facts of dynasty politics in the party since long but truth can never be extinguished. Amarinder Singh, head of Punjab Congress boldly denied the allegation of dynasty politics and facts say something different. Amarinder Singh, his wife Preneet Kaur who is sitting legislator and former parliamentarian and son Raninder fought election from Lok Sabha seat of Bhatinda. For Amarinder, this is not dynasty politics in Punjab Congress.

Punjab Congress has exposed in front of the people over the issue of dynasty politics as the entire family is at the party and both husband wife enjoying prestigious positions in the party. But, for Amarinder Singh, this is not dynasty politics.

A new face is being emerged in Punjab Congress and he is Nirvan Singh. The younger son of Amarinder’s daughter Jai InderKaur, Nirvan has returned from the UK after completed his post-graduation.

Nirvan Singh has been taking care of his maternal grandfather’s campaigns and he is also actively participating in social media. Amarinder has assigned the task of Nirvan’s training to his poll strategist Prashant Kishore.

Kishore has been taking Nirvan to different places so that he could be acquainted with the activities of the party as well as with the party cadre. However, Amarinder has not formally announced Nirvan’s name in the party but the sources in the party revealed that he would be given prominent position in the party.

Earlier, Amarinder took a u-turn on dynasty politics. He told the media that his son Raninder was no longer interested in politics so, there was no question of dynasty politics. Moreover, he had announced that the loyal party worker would be the replacement of Raninder.

The sources in the party said that Amarinder was scared after the Raninder exit as earlier his brother left the Congress so Nirvan was the only hope of Amarinder. He kept on insisting Nirvan to enter the political arena. Nirvan had planned to set up his consultancy in the UK but he dropped the idea to join his maternal grandfather.

Even Nirvanadmitted media that he has been helping his maternal granddad and handling his Twitter and Facebook account so that the reach with in the masses could be increased.

If this is not the definition of dynasty politics for Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Amarinder Singh then there must be another word for the proper definition. However, one this is being cleared that the tradition of family politics still continues in Punjab Congress. The political family of Congress party in Punjab don’t want the reins of the party in other hands.

Senior panel gave a miss to PPCC Meet!

Punjab Congress Committee never misses a chance to make a headline. This is all revealed that nothing is going smooth in the Captain’s team. And it is once again witnessed at a recently held meeting at Chandigarh where all the top slot players of the Punjab Congress committee decide to give it a miss.

The first-ever meeting of the newly constituted PPCC meant for interaction between the top leadership and members of the apex body saw various big wigs of the team giving it a miss.

Amarinder loyalists got upset

Those who doesn’t made it to the meeting were Pratap Bajwa, Shamsher Singh Dullo, Mohinder Kaypee, Sunil Jakhar, Sukhjinder Randhawa, Parminder Singh Pinki, Charanjit Singh Channi, Sukhjinder Raj Lali Majithia, Navtej Cheema and many more.  The reason for absentees was cited personal issues or commitments. But sources told a different tale that they preferred to stay away as they were peeved off at the way they had been placed in the new set up.

Turning down the issue, the Chief of PPCC Captain Amarinder Singh opted to choose the occasion to uplift the morale of those present. He talked about the recent and poor performance of Aam Aadmi party at Delhi municipal by-elections. He quoted, “Now the army of Congress is in place and our victory is sure.” The AAP has already lost in Punjab with a vertical division between the four MPs.

Meanwhile, Ambika Soni, Chairperson of the PPCC and State In-Charge Shakeel Ahmad asked the newly appointed office bearers to take up the charge and get along everyone to mark a victory in Punjab.

Also, putting all speculations to rest, Captain Amarinder Singh and party strategist Prashant Kishore found sharing camaraderie. Though Prashant was seated behind Captain, indicating the role being defined by the top panel only!

Captain Amarinder off to USA & Canada as the weather heats up in India!

As the several parts in India soar high in heat, our carefree captain Amarinder Singh escapes to USA & Canada. Named as political tour, it aims to woo the NRIs for the forthcoming Assembly elections to be held in 2017 and for obvious reasons to beat the heat back in India.

The Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh aims at encountering the AAP’s (AamAadmi Party’s) influence on NRIs and garnering the Punjabi’s support for the Congress. Embarked on his 18-day tour he is accompanied with a host of party leaders including Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans and Vikramjit Chaudhary (Punjab Youth Congress Chief).

Amarinder’s wife and Congress MLA Preneet Kaur soon would return from her New Zealand- Australia tour and then would undertake a tour to Germany, UK and Italy.

So the entire Maharaja Amarinder Singh’s family is on an international tour. They chose the best time to fly away from India when common man back in the state is suffering high due to soaring mercury. It shows how much people-oriented the Congress team is!!

Also, some are of viewed that during the recent visit by Rahul Gandhi to Punjab, he didn’t name Captain Amarinder Singh as the purported Chief Minister of Punjab and out of this outrage, he flown away to USA.

Amarinder Singh’s wife Praneet Kaur & Son Raninder Singh under radar

The point is no matter how disastrous the Congress performs, the top slot doesn’t change. Both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are on the top. Thus no real change ever occurs.  When Punjab got rid of Amarinder, tainted with scams, he bad mouthed Rahul Gandhi. But to everyone’s surprise he is back in power.Though his name is still pending to be announced officially for Congress in Punjab!

The rising infighting and indiscipline in the Congress has already shaken up the foundation of the party. It clears the fact that this party is running around as headless chook.

Such thug politicians forgot that NRIs left their motherland to save themselves the political hooligans. They can’t achieve their cheesy aims while sowing the seeds of division among the foreign diaspora and damaging their peace.

Captain Amarinder is been trolled the most on social media platforms because of his own awful antics, thoughts and actions. People of Punjab have gradually lost trust on him and his ambitions to uplift the state. His efforts to garner vote in Punjab would bring him success or not, is the fact still in doubts!

Prashnat Kishor re-branded old campaigns in Punjab

Captain Amarinder Singh has pinned high hopes on well-known poll strategist Prashant Kishor for forthcoming assembly polls in Punjab. Prashant Kishor might have orchestrated high profile ‘Coffee with Captain’, but it is nothing but a replica of ‘Chai pe charcha’.

Prashant is an expert of personality centric campaigns and his strategy is focused around projecting that person as the change maker having solution to all the problems of the electorate. His strategy worked in case of Narender Modi with ‘chai pe charcha’ becoming talk of town across the country.

Different ball game

 Prashant’s task here is different from what it was in the case of Narender Modi. In case of Modi, he had to deal with opponents from other parties but with Captain, he needs to target his opponents from within the party. With Congress, the fire fighting has to begin from home and he needs to put the house in order first before taking on the opponents.

Factionalism, infighting and leadership issues, there are many ills afflicting Punjab unit of Congress and Prashnat needs to face all those issues before embarking on poll campaign.

Mayhem at Congress meeting

Prashant was welcomed with unruly behavior party workers and he has been witness to meeting ending with utter chaos. The Congress meetings are nothing but an opportunity for local leaders and ticket aspirants to show their strength and trying to overpower each other, majority of the time, unruly scenes are witnessed at local levels.

Unable to bear the mayhem, in one such meeting at Majha region, he walked out midway. Prashnt has another big challenge ahead of him. Captain Amarinder is used to working with a coterie and leaders close to him do no see eye to eye with Prashant. Under such circumstances his troubles will aggravate as the elections time approaches.

Living in an illusive world, congress thinks much can happen over coffee

“With an aim to shun princely habits of ‘Mahraja Sahib’ and make him mingle with the people on the ground, ‘Coffee with Captain’ was orchestrated to woo Punjab voters ahead of polls. But failing to make an impression, it is drawing public ire on social media.”

 Contesting his last elections, Captain Amarinder is leaving no stone unturned to make a mark in upcoming assembly polls scheduled early next year. Out of power for 10 years now, captain is going all out woo Punjabi voters. Much against the wishes senior Congress leaders, Captain ensured that the party hired leading poll strategist Prashant Kishor. It is noteworthy that senior leaders had put their weight behind Ambika Soni for heading the poll campaign in state.

Out-of-box, out of sight idea

Relying heavily on modern concepts of marketing and branding, Prashnt Kishor has initiated a poll campaign with a heavy dose of marketing gimmicks. But being a novice in politics, serious questions marks are being raised over his experiments.

In order to attract young voters of Punjab, Prashant Kishor has conceptualized a Coffee date with Captain Amarinder Singh through much hyped ‘Coffee with Captain’ event.

Fails to make an impression

Heavily promoted on social media, this event managed to draw hype but the ground reality reflects a stark contrast to the image projected on social media. Captain Amarinder is projected as one among the masses, who has the answers to the problems faced by common people of Punjab.

 

The well-orchestrated event conducted by Prashant Kishore’s organization, Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) failed to make an impression. First of such event turned out to chaotic as the youngsters who had enrolled for the session, began overpowering each other rather than asking questions to captain as planned.

After AAP; it’s now Congress to woo voters

“It would not be wrong to say that the grand old party of the country, Congress is following the footsteps of AAP in Punjab”

 

After Aam Aadmi Party’s much hyped “lunch” and “dinner” polity, Congress has launched “Coffee with Captain” campaign in state, where Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) President, Captain Amarinder Singh hosts coffee parties for select audience.

It is a known fact that it was Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that had started organizing paid meals with political leader as a part of its cheap frolics to be in media and social media. And now when the state is heading towards 2017 assembly polls; Punjab Congress is also going the AAP way of despicable politics.

The only difference between the two is that AAP’s lunches and dinners are aimed at raising funds for the party and its leaders; Captain’s coffee party was held free of cost for a select audience.

But, as it was launch of Campaign, more than 500 people had gathered at a local park to attend the event, where youth raised questions on Captain’s plans to provide them with jobs if he formed government in the state.

Noticeably, it was Prashant Kishore who had extolled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s past as “Tea-seller” and turned it into a generic outreach with ‘Chai Pe Charcha’ campaign. The same Prashant Kishore has now picked up coffee to promote Captain Amarinder Singh’s electioneering. He has been appointed as the Congress’ poll strategist for Punjab assembly polls and also possesses Indian Political Awareness Committee (IPAC).

It is worth mentioning here that Captain, who comes from the ‘Royal family’ of Patiala, has often come under lot of criticism for his inaccessibility.

An official Facebook page ‘Punjab Da Captain’ has been created especially where the quiz, ‘8 Baj Gaye Kya’ is uploaded at 8 pm every day. Congress has been offering Rs 1,500-worth Flipkart vouchers every day to those who answer correctly and even for those who answer incorrectly as a “bribe”.

“Coffee with Captain” campaign is more or less being billed as an exercise to woo urban voters which are largely divided between the BJP and the Congress in cities like Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar.

At the end, fact remains that despite of ridiculing Prime Minister of India Shri. Narendra Modi, all these politicians want to copy him. A day is not far when other leaders across nation would be copying him too 🙂

 

 

Capt Amarinder readies to hang up his electoral boots

Punjab Congress chief Capt. Amarinder Singh will fight his last electoral battle

“This will be my last electoral battle. Every soldier needs to hang up their boots some time,” said former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh during his much talked “Coffee with Captain” campaign in Amritsar.  

 Playing safe, as he is aware of his defeat in Punjab, he further stated that “We want to provide opportunities to others, to the youth and those who have a potential to grow as good leaders but do not have any family connections.”

It is important to mention here is that Captain had been blaming Badal for not looking beyond his own self and the family. Now, the same Captain is geared up to introduce his 27-year-old grandson, Nirvan Singh, to politics.

Ahead of Punjab assembly polls, Captain is leaving no stone unturned to make his mark. He even urged people of Punjab to vote for the Grand Old Party – Congress, saying, “This is not the time for experiments, and that the state needs an experienced party and an experienced leader.”

Sitting on an exclusive Royal Chair and making a pitch for Industrial development in Punjab, Captain said, “People of Punjab are in debt, industries, agriculture, economy all have deteriorated. It is very much important to create an ecosystem that will let industries thrive. Punjab cannot work on trial and error basis when electing a government.”

Also, Captain did not miss a chance to degrade ruling SAD-BJP government. “While the ruling politicians are amassing huge wealth growing richer and richer, Punjab was getting poorer and poorer to the extent of going bankrupt”, he said, while adding, he will ensure that they are made to account for each penny they looted from Punjab.

Noteworthy, the same Captain, who is showing concern about Punjab and Punjabis’, had been ‘inaccessible’ to his own party cadre. One of the senior leaders from Congress had highlighted that despite of repeated reminders and phone calls, he could not get audience with Captain for over two months.

Capt. Amarinder Singh during Coffee with Captain Campaign in Amritsar

 

If Captain is really concerned about the welfare of Punjab then he should make an effort to reach ‘poor’ in Punjab, instead of inviting ‘rich’ to his much hyped ‘Coffee with Captain’ campaign in the state, which he claims as the best interactive mode to understand the people of Punjab. 

References:

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/politics/this-will-be-my-last-political-battle-all-needs-to-hang-up-their-boots-amrinder-singh-1223217.html

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/capt-amarinder-sing-brings-grandson-nirvan-singh-into-politics/