CHANDIGARH: Not all is well in the Punjab Congress with less than a year left for the 2027 assembly elections in the state, as the fault lines are visible within the state unit of the party, the camp of former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi has given one week’s time to the party high command to resolve their concerns. A large section of party workers and leaders had been expecting that Channi will replace Amarinder Singh Raja Warring as the Punjab Congress president. But the high command has retained Warring as state chief as it maintained status quo.
While former deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa met with Union home minister Amit Shah which added fuel to the organisational fire at a time when the grand old party is attempting to project unity and rebuild its organisation before the assembly polls.
In a significant show of political strength today, nearly two dozen sitting and former and Congress MLAs, several former ministers and hundreds of party workers gathered at the residence of Channi in Morinda town of the Chamkaur Sahib assembly constituency and held a meeting from 11 AM to 3 PM. This is seen as the first resentment against the Congress high command's decisions over the party's recent organisational appointments ahead of the assembly elections.
These leaders decided to constitute a committee that would take up the concerns of the state party workers with the party high command and also authorised Channi to decide the future course of action on behalf of the group. They argued that Channi remained one of the party's strongest leaders and that appointing him as the state unit president would have energised the party cadre ahead of the assembly elections.
Besides, these leaders also contended that Channi's grass-roots connect and experience as Chief Minister made him the natural choice to lead the party unit in the state. The formation of a committee to engage with the high command suggests that the dissenting leaders are, for now, seeking dialogue rather than confrontation.
The meeting was attended by former ministers Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Rana Gurjeet Singh, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Bharat Bhushan Ashu and OP Soni, besides former legislators Mohammad Sadique, Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Gurkirat Singh Kotli, Tarsem Singh Attari, Harminder Singh Gill and several other leaders.
Balkaur Singh, father of slain singer Sidhu Moosewala, and former minister and sitting MLA Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa claimed that the leaders had no confrontation with the Congress high command but wanted it to understand the prevailing sentiment in the state.
``Several party leaders in state are unhappy and thus it has been decided to seek time from the party high command so that the actual situation in the state can be placed before it. We have no fight with the high command,‘’ said Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa.
While former MLA Harminder Singh Gill said that the Congress leadership should have respected the sentiments of Punjab leaders before finalising key organisational appointments.
``All is not well in the Punjab Congress. We had gathered here to discuss the future course of action because the workers want Channi to lead as he is the mass leader who can bring the Congress back to power, ‘’ said former MLA Madan Lal Jalalpur.
While many leaders present at the meeting refrained from directly criticising the Congress high command, they made it clear after the meeting that they believed the decision had disappointed a large section of party workers. They said the Congress needed a strong and widely acceptable leader to spearhead its campaign against the ruling AAP government and asserted that Channi was best suited for the role.
The unrest comes days after the All India Congress Committee (AICC) announced its new list of Punjab office-bearers. Following nearly a month of internal deliberations, the high command chose to retain both Amrinder Singh Raja Warring as the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief and Partap Singh Bajwa as the Leader of the Opposition.
Senior Congress leader and Member of Parliament from Chandigarh Manish Tewari, also criticised the party’s internal dynamics publicly. He wrote on X,`` Hai bada koi avgun usme jise koi hunar aave (If a person is talented, society usually finds fault with him). Wish I had an antidote for the insecurities of individuals and institutions!.’’ While affirming his long-standing loyalty to the party, Tewari added a cryptic: “Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be.”
Meanwhile, Member of parliament from Gurdaspur Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa triggered speculation within party circles as he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at Kartavya Bhawan in New Delhi today. Dismissing the speculation, Randhawa clarified that the meeting was pre-scheduled and held solely to discuss security-related issues.
``I was summoned for a meeting during which we discussed the conclusions I had drawn in the final paragraph of my last letter. I had pointed out the presence of central agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Military Intelligence (MI), the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). I also emphasised that extortion and threats are rampant across Punjab today," he said.
Randhawa said he submitted a memorandum to Home Minister Shah, demanding action against the spike in gangster-related incidents in Gurdaspur and other border areas, which were discussed in detail at the meeting. He said that about two months ago, on June 4, he had written to the Prime Minister and sent a copy to the Home Minister, raising concerns over the deteriorating law and order situation in Punjab.