CHANDIGARH: The deadlock in the Punjab Congress appears to have eased, with senior leaders close to former chief minister and MP Charanjit Singh Channi and former deputy chief minister and MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa set to meet AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday.
The meeting comes three days after Baghel ruled out any change in the state party leadership.
Baghel has also extended his Punjab visit by three days. Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said, "In a day or two, you will see us all together."
Speaking to the media, Warring said Baghel had informed him that separate meetings had been scheduled with the leaders on Saturday. Asked whether the Channi camp had insisted that he should not be part of the meeting, Warring said he was unaware of any such demand.
He said he held no grudge against any leader and maintained that the Congress remained united.
Responding to questions over reports that the Channi camp was unwilling to accept him as state Congress president, Warring dismissed the claim.
"Tell me one senior leader who has said that they are not ready to accept me. Channi, Sukhjinder Randhawa, Aruna Chaudhary, Partap Singh Bajwa — tell me who among these leaders has said so?" he asked.
When asked how soon Channi, the Jalandhar MP and chairman of the party's campaign committee in Punjab, would be seen with him, Warring replied, "In a day or two, you will see us all together."
Sources said Channi, Randhawa and Rana Gurjit Singh are likely to be among the leaders meeting Baghel. The development comes days after the former Chhattisgarh chief minister began his five-day Punjab visit to prepare the Congress for the Assembly elections due early next year.
Asked about Randhawa's remark that he should introspect over why the former deputy chief minister was upset with him, Warring said Randhawa was like an elder brother.
"They are all my elders — Randhawa and Channi. I don't think he (Randhawa) is upset with me, but I will speak to him," he said.
Senior Congress leader Supriya Shrinate also downplayed reports of factionalism in the Punjab unit ahead of the Assembly elections.
"When polls are held, I have full confidence that the Congress will form its government," she said, adding that politics was "another name for ambition" and every leader had aspirations.
"Occasionally, there are some differences of opinion, but then we all come together as everything will be resolved. People know only the Congress can take the state on the path of progress," she said.
Shrinate said every state had capable Congress leaders with their own support base.
"What you call factionalism, I call leadership. We are happy that we are not a party which runs according to just one person. One person gets up and issues 'Tughlaki farmans' to do this and that. It is not like that in the Congress," she said.
"I feel that leaders do clash and have differences of opinion, yet we also fight together. I don't think it is such a big issue. The Congress is the only party which can undertake development in Punjab," she said, adding that unlike the AAP, whose Punjab government was being run by leaders sitting in Delhi, the Congress did not function in that manner.