New Delhi, Dec 10: The dissident Punjab Congress MLAs led by state agricultural minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal today held a meeting here, claimed majority support in the Congress Legislative Party and demanded a change of leadership in the state but the claim was contested by the Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh's faction. Claiming support of 40 Congress MLAs out of 65 in the state assembly, Bhattal Group sources said they had demanded an audience with party president Sonia Gandhi to prove their strength.

Meanwhile, denying the claim of bhattal Group, political advisor to the chief minister, Rana Sodhi said, "At maximum, the dissident group had support of 20 MLAs."
"The AICC team has heard the grievances of the dissident group. We are now telling them to listen to us... We also may be having some problem with the style of functioning of these MLAs," Sodhi said.

"As of now, we are not going in for parading of our MLAs, but if the need be, we will meet the party president and apprise her of our strength," he said.

The dissidents have been having discussions with the three-member AICC committee formed by the party high command to look into the grievances of the MLAs who are not happy with the way administrative and developmental issues are being handled by the chief minister in the state.

Some of the dissident group MLAs who were earlier not able to meet the AICC panel comprising Dr Manmohan Singh, Mohsina Kidwai and Ahmed Patel, would meet them today, sources said. Bureau Report