CHANDIGARH: All is not well within the faction-ridden Punjab Congress following the party’s defeat in the Ludhiana (West) by-election, as senior leaders Pargat Singh and Kushaldeep Dhillon have resigned from their posts as state unit vice-presidents.
This comes close on the heels of former cabinet minister and party candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu quitting his post. The knives are now being unsheathed within the grand old party, albeit carefully and in a calibrated manner.
Both leaders have sent their resignations to All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal and general secretary in-charge for Punjab Bhupesh Baghel.
Party sources said both Pargat and Dhillon, who had actively campaigned for Ashu, felt the election result called for honest introspection and that it would be wrong to interpret it as an individual’s defeat.
Punjab Congress president and Member of Parliament from Ludhiana, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, and Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa had largely stayed away from canvassing, appearing only in the final days of the party’s campaign.
Ludhiana district Congress chief Sanjay Talwar and former MLAs Surinder Dawar, Kuldeep Singh Vaid and Rakesh Pandey also stayed away from Ashu’s campaign.
Sources further revealed that Ashu had categorically told the party high command that Warring and Bajwa should not campaign for him due to his differences with both top leaders. The resignations reflect the deepening fault lines within the party.
The campaign for the Ludhiana (West) by-election was spearheaded by a group of senior leaders, including former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, MLAs Rana Gurjeet Singh and Pargat Singh. Rana is the same leader who had earlier described Warring as a “selfish leader” and had shown a strong interest in becoming the state Congress president.
The developments come a day after Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who was appointed working president of the Punjab Congress on April 11, 2022, resigned from his post.
He stated, “I take full moral responsibility for this defeat. The state Congress president and the Leader of Opposition were nowhere in the campaign.’’ He added that he had sent his resignation to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Punjab Congress in-charge Bhupesh Baghel.
Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said he was not aware of the development as the resignations had not been sent to him. “It is for the party high command to see,” he said.
Meanwhile, the tussle between Simarjeet Singh Bains and Bharat Bhushan Ashu has also come out into the open, with Bains calling Ashu “arrogant,” while Ashu responded by saying he did not consider Bains a Congressman.