Battle heats up for Congress face in state

Rajmeet Singh

Chandigarh, June 8

The “hidden” aspirations of certain top Punjab Congress leaders to be the face of the party in the run-up to the 2027 Assembly elections are back to haunt the leadership.

To fill the void after Capt Amarinder Singh was dethroned as the CM, the leaders have set their eyes on the 2027 Assembly poll.

The power game

• The party leaders fear that daggers may be out soon as three senior leaders — former CM Charanjit Singh Channi, PCC chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and former Deputy CM Sukhjinder Randhawa — have won the LS poll
• Don’t forget Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, who played a crucial role in making strategy and campaigning across the state. Already, certain leaders through their supporters are flexing their muscles for organisational changes

Though, still over two-and-a-half years are left for the next state poll, party leaders fear that daggers may out be out soon as three senior leaders, former CM Charanjit Singh Channi, PPCC chief Amarinder Raja Warring and former Deputy CM Sukhjinder Randhawa, have won the parliamentary poll. Don’t forget Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, who played a crucial role in making strategy and campaigning across the state. Already, certain leaders through their supporters are flexing their muscles for organisational changes.

As the memories of the 2022 Assembly elections are fresh when factionalism saw the leaders at the helm of affairs publicly pulling one another down, resulting losing 18 seats from 72 in the 2017 Assembly elections. Also, the move by the party to project Channi as the Sikh Dalit CM face in the run-up to the 2022 state poll bounced back as it threatened to disrupt the pattern of Jat dominance in the party.

Former Speaker Rana KP Singh and Chairman of the Campaign Committee said Raja Warring and Partap Bajwa deserved appreciation for the resounding success of the party Already, Warring and Bajwa are showering praises on each other for working as a team to ensure good performance. The pro-Congress referendum has also vindicated the position of Bajwa, who had resigned as the PPCC chief after the party’s poor performance in the 2014 parliament poll.

Hinting that he would remain in the driving seat, Warring said, “We have a magic wand to ensure that all factions remain united and put up a collective face in the next Assembly elections as we did this time.”

In the game of being the tallest leader, a section of party leader argues that those elected as MPs will be busy in Parliament or their constituency, but the counter-argument by leaders owing allegiance to Warring have said there has been a precedent that MPs have remained state party president such as Capt Amarinder Singh and Partap Singh Bajwa.