Having learnt harsh lessons from the factional and fratricidal fights in Rajasthan and Haryana, the Congress appears to be taking no chances in Punjab.
Before any rebellion could brew in the state unit, the party had already cracked the whip by accepting the resignations of three senior and prominent leaders from their respective positions.
After the Ludhiana West assembly by-election defeat, the party candidate and the state working president, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, resigned, owning moral responsibility for the defeat. His resignation was followed by that of Pargat Singh, a sitting MLA and a former minister, and Kushaldeep Singh ‘Kikki’ Dhillon, also a former legislator. Both resigned from their respective posts as PCC vice presidents. Pargat and Kikki belong to the same faction as Ashu.
The party right now is vertically divided between two factions. One comprising, among others, the PCC president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, the Congress Legislative Party Leader Partap Singh Bajwa, and AICC General Secretary and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.
The rival faction comprises, among others, former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, former ministers Ashu, Rana Gurjeet Singh, Pargat Singh, Kikki Dhillon, and former Punjab Youth Congress president Barinder Singh Dhillon.
There are some neutral leaders like Brahm Mohindra, Rana KP Singh, OP Soni, Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhbinder Singh ‘Sukh’ Sarkaria, Vijay Inder Singla and others.
The division within the party was quite visible during the Ludhiana West by-election. Warring factions abstained from campaigning. Warring, being the PCC president and the local MP, marked a token presence a couple of times.
No other leader joined the campaign. Even the “neutral” faction also remained mostly absent, except for Tripat Bajwa and Sukh Sarkaria.
The next assembly elections in Punjab are due in February 2027. Effectively, the party is left with just about one year, as most of the parties get into the battle mode six months ahead of the elections.
The party can ill-afford factional fights at this stage, which seemed to have started gaining momentum after the resignation of Pargat and Kikki. Ashu’s resignation was understandable on moral grounds, although it might also not have been above the factional interests.
The party high command took no time to accept the resignations. Normally, it does not happen like that in Congress. Mostly, such resignations, which are just a token and a formality, are rejected.
Even if the resignations are accepted, they take a lot of time to be accepted. But here, the resignations were accepted within a matter of hours.
The Congress has certainly taken a wise and bold decision, as it will stem any further spate of resignations that could follow. This would weaken the authority of the PCC president, as the rival faction wants him to be replaced.
It has been a practice in the Congress to replace the incumbent PCC president about a year ahead of the elections, whenever it has been in the opposition.
Many leaders within the PCC again expect a change ahead of the assembly elections. If the change has to be affected, the process will have to start from now. Much will depend on the AICC in-charge for Punjab, Bhupesh Baghel. Right now, the party appears to have signalled a status quo only.
As such, there is nothing against the incumbent president that he cannot lead the party in the 2027 assembly elections. He was appointed immediately after the 2022 elections, which the party lost badly.
Warring replaced Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has since taken a long sabbatical, which is seen as his virtual retirement, from politics. He has engaged himself with cricket commentary and a television show.
Warring, despite being relatively young and among the youngest PCC presidents, led the party to a reasonably good performance in the General Elections in Punjab. Congress won seven of the 13 parliamentary seats and could have won two more, which it lost by narrow margins.
Even in the local bodies elections, the Congress' performance was not that bad, although the ruling Aam Aadmi Party managed to elect their mayors in all the cities.
Since the Congress is seen to have bright chances in the 2027 elections, the race for the Chief Ministerial position has already started within the party.
This is something similar to Rajasthan and, more recently, in Haryana, where the leaders were interested more in getting rivals defeated than winning the election in the misplaced belief that the party was winning in any case. The party lost, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
A similar ‘repeat performance’ has started unfolding in Punjab also. The party high command appears to have learnt its lesson well, after Haryana made it clear that the rebellion will not be tolerated at any cost, no matter the status, standing and seniority of the leaders concerned.
Having cracked the whip, the party high command should now coordinate and facilitate the unity among the leaders. There are very few leaders, obviously the Chief Ministerial aspirants, who are mainly involved in factionalism.
When the message gets across, crisp and clear, “fall in line”, they will take no time to do that.
Punjab appears to be an experimental case for the Congress high command to enforce discipline against factionalism. The party does not have any other option either. It either enforces sense and discipline, or gets ready for another debacle.
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