Punjab Congress is witnessing a fresh round of internal tussle, and state in-charge Bhupesh Baghel is meeting former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and his supporting leaders in Chandigarh on Saturday to try and cool tempers. Around 50 leaders, including Channi, are part of this meeting, though state Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring will not be present. Just before walking into the meeting, Channi's tone turned unmistakably sharp. He said people should first watch the oil and watch the flow of the oil, and only then would there be talks, a remark that made it clear reconciliation inside Punjab Congress will not come easy.
Channi camp set two conditions
Amid the ongoing tug of war within Punjab Congress, today's meeting is being seen as significant on several counts. Leaders from the Channi camp are using this meeting to place their grievances and demands directly before Bhupesh Baghel. According to available information, the Channi group had put forward two conditions before agreeing to this meeting. The first was that state president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring should not attend. The second was that the meeting should not be held at the Congress Bhawan but at some other venue. Both conditions were accepted, and the meeting is now taking place at the residence of Congress MLA Rana Gurjeet.
Dispute traces back to the July 1 list
The roots of the current infighting go back to an organisational list released by the Congress high command on July 1. That list named Amarinder Singh Raja Warring as the state Congress president and made former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi the chairman of the campaign committee. The moment the list came out, discontent spread within the Channi camp. His supporting leaders questioned Raja Warring's leadership and openly demanded that Channi be made state president instead.
Channi held a show of strength
To press his case, Channi called a separate meeting of his supporting leaders, which was attended by 4 MLAs and around 50 leaders, widely seen as a message to the party high command about the scale of his backing. Raja Warring responded in kind, meeting his own set of supporting leaders to signal that his grip on the state unit remained firm. As the tussle between the two camps intensified, the Congress high command had to step in and sent state in-charge Bhupesh Baghel to Punjab to defuse the situation.
Both sides have already traded barbs
Through this entire episode, both the Channi camp and the Raja Warring camp have made public statements against each other. Still, state Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring has maintained that the differences will be resolved soon. All eyes are now on today's meeting in Chandigarh, where Bhupesh Baghel will hear out the Channi camp's complaints and try to chart a path towards peace within the party. Given Channi's sharp tone heading into the meeting, it is evident that this dispute will not be settled easily, and the politics inside Punjab Congress could heat up further in the coming days.
