Chandigarh: Faced with a situation when his own younger brother has quit the Congress and joined the Akali Dal after being denied the party ticket for the Jan 30 assembly poll in Punjab, state Congress chief Amarinder Singh Saturday tried to downplay the development saying that the rebellion by some party leaders was "only an initial reaction".

Refusing to agree that there was large scale rebellion among Congress leaders who did not get the party nomination, Amarinder said: "Yes, there are some initial reactions which will calm down with due course of time."

Malwinder Singh Saturday quit the Congress and joined the Akali Dal hours after he was denied the party ticket. The Congress chose his nephew Raninder Singh, son of Amarinder Singh and Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, to contest the Samana assembly seat.

Talking to media here, Amarinder Singh said: "It is natural for people to react when they expect that the government is being formed and they could be part of it."

At the same time, he assured that all those deserving candidates who could not be allotted the party tickets, that they would be suitably adjusted when the Congress forms the government after the elections.

He also announced that the party had constituted a team headed by former legislator Ramesh Singla which will "talk to those who are feeling upset about not getting the tickets". Amarinder Singh said, if the need be, he may speak to some of them personally as well.

"I hope that each and every leader abides by the party discipline as all the candidates belong to the party and opposing them will mean violation of the party discipline," he said.

Justifying the selection of Congress candidates, Amarinder Singh said "winnablity was the only criterion for choosing the candidates for the assembly elections".

"The party gave adequate representation to the youth and the women with 24 of the candidates being less than 45 years of age," he said, adding that the party had fielded 36 fresh faces in this election.

IANS