The Congress high command is understood to be looking for an “off ramp” to resolve the crisis in Punjab. The party is faced with a rare and unprecedented situation with a majority of the state leadership refusing to accept Amarinder Singh Raja Warring as the state president. There are reports that Warring has been suggested to “offer” his resignation in the greater interest of the party, which obviously he is not disinclined to.
For the high command it is a challenging situation to accept the demand of the rebels and replace the PCC president. This decision can have far reaching consequences for the party across the country. It can set a wrong and disturbing precedent for the party high command where the state leaders can force it to change its decisions. Replacing the PCC president under pressure from the rebels will obviously mean the erosion of the authority of the party high command.
The state unit of the party held ‘Harr booth, Congress Mazboot’ programmes in 18 districts during the last nine days. All the programmes were attended by the AICC general secretary in charge Punjab Bhupesh Baghel. While some important senior party leaders like Brahm Mohindra, Shamsher Singh Dullo, Dr Amar Singh, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, two PCC working presidents Dr Rajkumar Verka and Sukhminder Singh Danny did participate in these programmes, none of the rebel leaders attended. They in fact held parallel programmes.
Barring a few of these programmes, there were disruptions everywhere with the supporters of the rebel leaders barging into the venue and raising slogans in support of former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who is leading the rebellion. This happened in Patiala, Sangrur, Faridkot, Mansa, Ludhiana and many more places.
While the official programmes did witness impressive presence of the party workers, these were marred by the disruptions which sent across a wrong message about the party being hit by internal squabbles. The party otherwise is perceived to be the favourite for the 2027 assembly elections to challenge/replace the Aam Aadmi Party. But during the preceding week the party was marred by bad and ugly optics.
Also read: Is Congress preparing for plan-B in Punjab?
Initially Baghel and Warring had avoided reacting to the disruptions. In fact, at one programme the PCC president invited one of the supporters of Channi to raise slogans in his favour from the stage. He even said that Channi was very much the leader of the party and nobody had any problem or objection to slogans being raised in his favour.
However, it did not seem to appeal to the rebels and their supporters continued with the regular and routine disruptions. There was a perfect pattern about these disruptions. A group of a few dozen party workers would barge into the venue and start raising slogans in support of Channi. Once these got noticed, they would walk out of the venue, making their purpose and intention obvious.
Baghel had said those disrupting the Congress programmes were being identified and a report was being submitted to the high command for strict action. However, given the firm and united stance adopted by the rebels, the Congress high command is unlikely to resort to any punitive measures. Otherwise, in Ludhiana for example, the supporters of senior leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu openly raised slogans. So much so, the PCC president, who is also the local MP, personally responded and accused those raising the slogans of doing it at the behest of the RSS.
No party can afford such a state of civil war when the elections are less than six months away. Since the only condition of the rebels is that the high command can appoint anyone as the PCC president other than Warring, there is a high likelihood of him being asked to resign.
Warring on his part has repeatedly conveyed and reaffirmed that he would always stick to the party which has given him everything. He went to the extent of saying that leave aside the state presidency, even if he is denied the party ticket, he will continue to remain in and work for the Congress, saying he owes everything to the party and its leader Rahul Gandhi.
With the likelihood of an Akali-BJP alliance, that will make it a strong contender, the Congress cannot continue like a house divided against itself. The party has reportedly zeroed in on a few names, who are all senior and will be acceptable to every section and every faction in the state.
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