JALANDHAR: AAP MLA H S Phoolka has said that it was excessive control on Punjab unit which damaged the prospects of the party in the 2017 assembly election. “Now, the party needs to make serious amends if it wishes to bounce back,” the AAP leader said, adding that he would continue to stay away from intra-party squabbles.“Scope is still there for the party as space for a genuine third alternative exists but for that serious amends need to be made in running the party,” he said while speaking to TOI on Sunday.“When party graph was rising in Punjab and people were looking towards it with a lot of expectations, Durgesh Pathak brought his boys from Delhi and pursued the policy of taking control of the party through micromanagement and continuously worked to finish the state leadership. Pathak neither had the level of leadership nor the capability but he was given unlimited powers to run the affairs in Punjab and this backfired,” Phoolka said. “The non-entities were brought from Delhi and they started lording over everybody in the state. On one hand, they worked to finish the existing state leadership, and on the other they stopped emergence of good, credible leadership from the ground level in the state,” he added.“His plan was to finish the state leadership and so that he could take complete control of the state affairs but that backfired. Their strategy not only damaged the party but a crucial opportunity for bringing a major shift in the politics in Punjab was lost,” he said about his party colleague from Delhi.About the current crisis in the party unit in Punjab, Phoolka said that he would stay away from the internal squabbles as he needed to focus on cases against Tytler and Sajjan Kumar but party leaders needed to make amends. “Both sides — central leaders and the dissenting state leaders — would have to make amends. Central leadership needs to change its methods and it can only advice and can have limited interference but would have to leave most of the decision making with the state leadership. The state leadership also can’t say that national convener did not have any authority over party affairs. Only mutual respect can help to improve the working. Both sides need to learn that they need each other to come into the reckoning,” he said.Asked about his increased activity in the state, Phoolka said that his recent frequent presence in the state was due to sacrilege and firing issues. “It is a very sensitive issue and close to my heart and all the genuine people of the state felt strongly about the issue. It also involved the legal issues on which the ruling party has been misguiding the people. It was necessary to present correct perspective and information before the people of the state,” he said.Pathak neither took calls nor responded to the SMSes with specific query about Phoolka’s take on him and his team of observers. The party’s Punjab co-convener Aman Arora was also not available for comments.

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