Congress holds parleys with miffed Punjab leaders

The Congress high command on Friday initiated the process to give a hearing to state leaders, who have been questioning the functioning of the Punjab unit of the party.

On the directions of the party top brass, Bhupesh Baghel, AICC general secretary in-charge for Punjab held one-on-one meetings with former CM and Jalandhar MP Charanjit Singh Channi, Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Randhawa, MLA Pargat Singh, Fatehgarh Sahib MP Amar Singh, former CM Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and former Fatehgarh Sahib MLA Kuljit Nagra.

In the coming days, Baghel would be meeting other disgruntled leaders, said sources in the party. Sources privy to the meeting said the leaders stressed that with the Assembly elections due in early 2027, there was a need to more aggressively take on the ruling AAP, especially on the law and order, land pooling policy and other state issues. “The top Congress leadership is not adopting an aggressive stand against the ruling party even as the public sentiment against the land pooling policy is growing,” pointed out one of the leaders.

The meetings came after Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Pargat Singh and Kushaldeep Dhillon resigned from PPCC posts. The leaders, while putting in their resignations, had sought collective introspection and restructuring of the state unit. The PPCC chief is learnt to have sent a proposal regarding the pradesh committee restructuring to the high command.

Ashu had resigned taking moral responsibility for the loss in the Ludhiana (West) bypoll, where he was the party candidate. The parleys started days after factionalism within the state unit turned into a rebellion, triggered by the exclusion of Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa from the party’s campaign for the Ludhiana bypoll.