Famous BBC journalist Mark Tully once remarked that the Congress party in India is ‘always in a state of civil war’. That holds true for the party in Punjab and that too when it is fighting a crucial and critical battle in Ludhiana West assembly constituency, which is going for by-elections on June 19.
The party has fielded its state working president and a former minister, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, from here. Ashu does not get along well with the Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, who happens to be the local Ludhiana MP also.
The two, otherwise close pals, fell apart during the run-up to the last General Elections, as both were aspirants for the party ticket from Ludhiana. Warring outwitted Ashu and got the ticket, and got elected also. Since then, they have never seen each other eye to eye.
So much so that after Ashu was nominated to be the party candidate for the by-election, he wrote to the party high command that he did not want Warring to campaign for him. Although Warring did accompany him when he filed the nomination papers, that was it.
The split in the party has not been restricted between the PCC president and the working president alone. It has led to further regimentation and factionalism within the party. One group rallies around Warring, while the other group around Ashu.
Warring has the Leader of Opposition in Punjab assembly Partap Singh Bajwa and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on his side. While Ashu has former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Rana Gurjeet Singh, Pargat Singh and many others rallying behind him. Some senior leaders like Brahm Mohindra and Rana KP Singh are maintaining a distance from both.
However, other party veterans like Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria have been trying to draw a balance between the two. Tripat Bajwa in particular was instrumental in bringing Warring and Ashu together on the day of nominations.
But it did not end there. As happens in every election, every party tries to poach into the rival party to get some leaders. This creates better optics and atmosphere. The Congress roped-in a sitting councillor from the ruling AAP and a former party leader, who had since joined the BJP, to re-join the Congress.
This was followed by the induction of another leader, Kamaljit Singh Karwal. He had contested the 2022 assembly election as a Congress candidate, but later deserted the party and joined the BJP. He left the BJP to join the AAP, only to resign from the AAP and re-join the Congress. This was objected to by the PCC president, as Karwal’s rival, Simarjit Singh Bains, who joined the Congress ahead of the parliamentary elections is eyeing the same Atam Nagar assembly constituency. But Warring was sore for another reason—that he was not taken into confidence.
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Meanwhile, Bains also raised objections. He was once quite close to Ashu, who also reportedly helped him during the previous government when he (Bains) was facing rape charges. The case is still continuing. However, after he aligned with Warring, the latter was instrumental in getting him inducted into the Congress. Bains had earlier tried his luck with the BJP also, but was refused entry over the charges he was facing.
Ashu apparently wanted to get even with Bains and got Karwal to join the party. Karwal was inducted into the party by Charanjit Singh Channi.
To continue the plot unfolding, Warring immediately re-inducted suspended Phillaur legislator Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary into the party, apparently to get even with Channi. Chaudhary had revolted against the party when Channi was nominated from Jalandhar parliamentary constituency in 2024.
The constituency was earlier represented by Vikramjit’s father, Chaudhary Santokh, who died in January 2023 during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. In the subsequent by-election, his wife, Vikramjit’s mother, was fielded by the party and she lost to the AAP candidate. But in the General Elections, the Congress chose Channi and Vikramjit revolted, while his mother joined the BJP. Vikramjit was suspended from the party.
Warring seized the chance on Monday and got Vikramjit back into the party, more to annoy Channi than to re-induct the MLA.
This is the worst time that Congress should be indulging in such sort of ‘civil war’ as the message is going out that the party is divided, that too when it is in a very good position to reclaim the Ludhiana West seat, which can set the tone for the 2027 elections.
While on ground Congress is on a strong footing, at the leadership level, the open confrontation among the leaders is sending wrong signals that the party is a divided house with the split wide open.
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