CHANDIGARH, APRIL 22:Round one of the ongoing battle of wits between former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Rajinder Kaur Bhattal has clearly gone to the latter.

Apart from being told to behave and stop criticising the party leadership openly, Amarinder was also dealt a setback when his demand that Bhattal be asked not to hold any rally in his home district of Patiala was also turned down by none other than AICC president Sonia Gandhi herself. In fact, adding insult to injury, Bhattal was actually provided a helicopter by the party high command to help her reach Chandigarh on Tuesday to allow her to make it to Patiala for the scheduled protest there.

While Bhattal refused to say anything about the meeting, maintaining that everything had been “sorted out amicably”, one of Amarinder's confidants said the former CM said he had been assured that his demands would be met at the appropriate stage. Both Amarinder and Bhattal had been summoned to New Delhi on Monday by Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel.

The first round of discussions was held at the house of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Later, a meeting was held at 10 Janpath where Sonia, Mukherjee, Patel and AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab Margaret Alva were present. In this meeting, Sonia reportedly told Amarinder that he must adhere to party discipline and not make his feelings public.

On his part, Amarinder demanded reconstitution of the coordination committee to give representation to his supporters, lifting the ban on him from holding public meetings in the state without the prior approval of the PPCC and the coordination committee and directions to Bhattal not to hold meetings at Patiala without involving him.

He also demanded that either he or somebody of his choice be appointed PPCC chief or Leader of the Opposition. A major demand voiced by Amarinder was the removal of newly-appointed chief spokesperson Bir Devinder Singh from the post for criticising him.

However, the high command told him to stop his public outbursts first. He was also not given any assurance that his demands would be met. He was told that designating any leader as spokesperson was the prerogative of the PPCC chief and the high command would not intervene.

However, Bhattal was told to ask Bir Devinder not to criticise Amarinder in his statements to the media. Amarinder's request to the high command to stop Bhattal from trying to wean away his supporters also did not elicit any favourable response.

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