NEW DELHI: Hours after the Punjab Congress shared a photo of several leaders with former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, his group has already left for Delhi to meet the party’s high command and claim to make him the Punjab Congress president.
A few days ago, on July 3, Channi himself mentioned that the Congress leadership had asked him to go and convey the feelings and aspirations of the people of Punjab directly to the high command. But former Ludhiana MLA Simranjit Singh Bains is brushing aside all the talk of an internal rift.
He says very soon, you’ll see Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Charanjit Singh Channi, MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, and the high command all standing together, showing complete unity.
Talking to reporters, Bains said the media is unnecessarily looking at the party through a “lens of division.” “I’ll go to Channi Sahab’s house, I’ll go to Randhawa’s house, and also to the state president’s house. All this drama about ‘so-and-so is sitting at so-and-so’s house’, it’s not a split. You people are just putting a scanner of division on everything. The day you see Raja Warring, Sardar Channi, Sukhjinder Randhawa, and the high command travelling together in one vehicle, arms linked, all this noise will stop. From workers to leaders to the high command, we are all united,” he asserted.
Earlier today, senior Congress leader and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa hinted at a possible rift after he posted a picture on X featuring what looked like the Channi-led group.
The picture included several big names like Pargat Singh, Razia Sultana, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, and others.
He captioned it simply, “Unity is strength.” Channi also shared the same photo.
Notably missing from the picture were Punjab Congress chief Raja Warring, Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, and MLA Sukhpal Khaira.
Just a day earlier, on July 4, Channi had called a big meeting at his house in Morinda. Several senior leaders, including Bharat Bhushan Ashu, attended and openly voiced their dissatisfaction with Warring.
They demanded that he be removed as state president and pushed for Channi to lead the party into the next elections. The group also urged the high command to rethink the recent organisational appointments in Punjab, claiming the party would only return to power under Channi’s leadership, sparking a fresh leadership row within the Congress party just before the 2027 Punjab elections.
