Former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh will formally take over as the president of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee on December 15 at a public rally slated to be held in Bathinda.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the senior party leaders and other office bearers of the Malwa Zone here, a party spokesman said today.
The meeting was presided over by Capt Amarinder Singh.
Earlier, the party sources have maintained that Amarinder's coronation will take place on December 13 at Bathinda rally.
Senior vice president of the party in Punjab, Laal Singh has been appointed as the Convenor for the rally.
Addressing the meeting Amarinder said, the atmosphere was totally in favour of the Congress as the common man in Punjab was looking forward to Congress to get rid of the callous and corrupt Akali-BJP government.
He said that Bathinda rally will mark the beginning of the battle for 2017 elections.
Singh was appointed as the new Punjab PCC chief and senior leader Ambika Soni made head of the Campaign Committee in a major reshuffle of the party's state unit announced on November 27 ahead of 2017 Punjab Assembly polls.
Others presented on the occasion were Indian Youth Congress president Raja Warring, senior leaders Sunil Kumar Jakhar, Jagmeet Singh Brar, Laal Singh, Preneet Kaur, Brham Mohindra, Rana Gurmeet Sodhi and, Kewal Dhillon.
Amarinder said no country could afford a demoralised
defence force.
He reiterated his demand for the ouster of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for his "insensitivity" towards the problems of ex-servicemen.
Alleging that the Defence Minister had "no idea" how the armed forces functioned, the Punjab Congress chief demanded his immediate replacement.
"As a soldier myself, I cannot allow the dignity of the army personnel to be compromised in any manner," he said, adding that the Modi government seemed "hell bent on demoralising the country's defence personnel".
Amarinder also lashed out at Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who had reportedly dismissed the plea of ex-servicemen on the contentious OROP issue, which the BJP had promised to resolve in its election manifesto.
Regarding the issues of Jammu and Kashmir and Indo-Pak relations, the former Punjab chief minister reiterated that "dialogue and negotiations" with Pakistan were the only solutions and cautioned against the continued escalation of tension along the international border in Jammu and Kashmir.
He alleged that the NDA government was "deliberately trying to create tension along the border in order to polarise the people with an eye on the (2017) Uttar Pradesh Assembly election".
"First they (NDA) politicised the surgical strikes and now, they are trying to build up tension along the border," said Amarinder.
He expressed concern over the "continuous process" of expulsion and withdrawal of diplomats by India and Pakistan.
Amarinder said dialogue was the only option between the two countries and called for an immediate end to the continuous firing along the border by both sides.
Taking a jibe at the NDA government for "politicising" the army's surgical strikes, he said there was "nothing new" about these as such operations were carried out by the army on earlier occasions as well.
"Earlier, these were called raids across the border and now, they (NDA) are trying to make political capital out of it by describing these as surgical strikes," he said.
