Crisis in Punjab Congress after bypoll loss: Pargat Singh, Kushaldeep Dhillon quit as state vice-presidents

Rumblings in the faction-ridden Punjab Congress grew louder on Tuesday as its senior leaders Pargat Singh and Kushaldeep Dhillon quit as the state unit vice-presidents, a day after the party lost the Ludhiana West Assembly bypoll.

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Both leaders sent their resignations to All-India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal and general secretary in-charge for Punjab Bhupesh Baghel.

They are learnt to have sought a “collective introspection” for the bypoll debacle and stressed the need for restructuring of the state unit.

However, both leaders did not respond to repeated calls for a comment.

Baghel too did not respond to a phone call made to seek comments.

Meanwhile, state Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said he was not aware of the development.

“As I have not got any resignations, it is for the party high command to see,” he told The Tribune.

The development has come a day after Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu quit as the working president of the party’s state unit, threatening a vertical split in its ranks. Ashu resigned claiming moral responsibility for the loss.

Highly placed sources said both Pargat and Dhillon, who had campaigned for Ashu, pointed out that the election results demanded an honest introspection and it would be “wrong to see it as an individual’s defeat”.

Warring and Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa had remained largely away from canvassing, showing up only in last days of the party campaign.

Ashu too had got a team of his choice to campaign, including Rana Gurjeet Singh, who in the past had dubbed Warring a “selfish leader” and had shown interest in becoming the state Congress president.

Given the fact that Ashu had categorically urged the party high command that Warring and Bajwa should not campaign for him due to his differences with the two top leaders, the resignations are indicative of the deepening fault lines in the party.

The campaign for the Ludhiana bypoll was run by a pressure group of senior leaders, including former CM Charanjit Singh Channi, MLAs Rana Gurjeet Singh and Pargat Singh.