The Congress's Punjab unit is grappling with too many power centres, with leaders pulling in different directions and making it difficult for the high command to control the situation. Different leaders are pressing competing demands, with the main tussle emerging between the former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and state unit president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring over the former’s refusal to accept Warring’s leadership.
Most leaders appear to be aligned with Channi. Earlier, more than 70 former assembly election contestants and half a dozen MLAs attended a meeting convened by him, in what was seen as a show of strength. Later, Channi skipped a meeting with the party's Punjab in-charge Bhupesh Baghel, who had travelled to the state, and instead flew to Delhi. Both incidents suggested that Channi was raising the stakes to pressure the high command into revisiting its decision.
In the meantime, Channi appears to have realised his importance in controlling some of the party's organisational levers in the state as he seeks to position himself for a return as chief minister if the Congress comes back to power. Consequently, any leader perceived to be a step ahead of him may not find it easy to continue in his position. Channi, a Dalit Sikh, also appears to be drawing strength from Punjab's sizeable Dalit population, which accounts for about 32 per cent of the state's population.
According to party insiders, the high command will have to pacify Channi if normalcy is to return to the Congress state unit.
The Congress high command recently held several meetings with Punjab leaders as the state unit continued to simmer with factionalism. There were expectations that the party would replace the state president Warring, and reorganise its leadership. However, the high command retained the existing leadership and instead accommodated other senior leaders in important committees that will prepare the party for next year's assembly elections. Channi is being made the chairman of the campaign committee.
"Congress doesn't want to experiment. With the AAP witnessing a downward trend, and after the video incident involving Bhagwant Mann, the party sees an opportunity in Punjab. It does not want to experiment at this stage," political analyst Aditya Rathi said. "It wants to keep its Dalit-Jat Sikh formula intact by maintaining the status quo."
Although different camps in Punjab have been asked to accept the party leadership's decision and work together to strengthen the organisation ahead of the elections, a majority of leaders had wanted a change in the current leadership.
Party sources said the Congress has traditionally gone by the recommendation of the state in-charge while appointing the state unit president. In this case, Baghel has been backing Warring—a decision that has been opposed by a majority of leaders.
"If they had to maintain the status quo, then what was the need to hold so many meetings? The party held more than six discussions with the top leadership in Punjab," a senior Congress leader said. "There were expectations that the party would change people in key leadership positions."
Factionalism has previously cost the Congress dearly in Punjab. It contributed to the removal of former chief minister Amarinder Singh and eventually led to his exit from the party around four months before the 2022 Punjab assembly elections, which the Congress lost to the AAP.
