The change of guard in the Punjab Congress may have relieved the anti-Amrinder Singh Raja Warring camp and fulfilled Pargat Singh’s desire to become the new captain, but the main challenge for the party remains – never-ending factionalism in the state unit.
Pargat Singh was picked as the new PCC chief because he is a low-profile, clean, non-controversial figure. That is a strength inside the party and a risk outside it.
Pargat Singh captained the Indian men’s hockey team, held sports and education ministries in the Charanjit Singh Channi government, and has won the Jalandhar Cantonment seat thrice. The Punjab Congress has lost more elections to its own camps than to its opponents. Channi’s son, Rhythmjit Singh, put it cryptically on social media: ‘ Gudda Guddi OOOOO Yandeee ‘ (there go gudda guddi). It painted the change as a victory for the anti-Warring camp while targeting both Warring and former state in-charge Bhupesh Baghel, who had turned down the Channi faction’s demand to replace the PCC chief saying ” gudda-guddi ka khel nahi hai . Pargat Singh’s elevation as PCC chief is a crown of thorns amid factionalism in the party. Rhythmjit Singh has no say in the Punjab Congress except for being the son of a former chief minister, but his post has stirred up fresh turmoil. Channi has not reacted to his son’s post targeting party leaders who are vital for achieving the new goal set by the party high command. Contrary to Channi’s son’s remark, Gurdaspur MP from the camp and former state home minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa’s comments were more careful and revealing. But the challenges as the captain of a faction-riddled party are different. The consensus that made him president – acceptable to the Channi camp – does not automatically become authority. Warring has already called the change a win for the Channi faction. A grounded president can lower the temperature. He cannot abolish the camps by his mannerisms alone. Congress will gain if the change reads as discipline: one president, one in-charge, no more public score-settling. It will lose if Pargat Singh remains a figurehead while the faction that forced the change holds the real say. He was chosen as a full-back to hold the line. The election will ask him to play further up the field.
The Punjab bus fabrication case involves corruption allegations stemming from Amarinder Singh Raja Warring’s tenure as Transport Minister (2021-22). The controversy centres on contracts awarded to a Jaipur-based company to build bodies for 841 government buses. Critics allege the state paid an inflated Rs 11.98 lakh per bus, bypassing local Punjab builders who quoted nearly half that price. The deal, along with irregularities in private route permits, allegedly caused a loss of Rs 60 crore to Rs 100 crore to the state exchequer. The 2027 Assembly elections are months away, and the model code will shut the reorganisation window before the party is ready.
The new political development has put the Punjab Congress camp led by former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi on the front foot, so much so that Warring himself termed it a “victory for Channi and the party”. Also AICC in-charge for Rajasthan, he said those who created the differences should reflect, and that he himself was responsible, “and so is Warring and other Congress leaders,” for circumstances that should not have arisen.
The public feud between Congress leaders Randhawa and Warring had exposed deep internal friction within the Punjab Congress. Randhawa had indirectly criticised Warring for not daring to protest against Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
