In latest Punjab Congress flashpoint, MP’s open dare to state chief

Political parties in the state hold their annual conferences at the village in Khanna in the district on Independence Day to pay tributes to Shaheed Karnail Singh Issru, a local hero who died on August 15, 1955, while fighting for Goa’s liberation from the Portuguese.

The Congress’s conference was a show of strength by the camp led by former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who is now in direct confrontation with Warring. The party unit has been divided into two camps—led by Warring and Channi—after the party high command decided to retain Warring as the state president for the 2027 polls. Channi’s supporters want him to be the party’s face for the polls.

Warring was missing not only from the stage but also from the flex banner put up there. Former Khanna MLA Gurkirat Singh Kotli, a Channi supporter, organised the party conference.

In a recent statement, Warring said from another stage, “Several big leaders in the party are upset with me. They say ‘I will contest from here and my son will contest from there’. But let me clarify, ‘Till Warring is here, only family will get only one ticket, not two. Baapu da raaj hai ethe ? (Is it your father’s rule here?). Rahul Gandhi will allocate tickets, but I am the one who has to recommend them. So maybe, I won’t give even one ticket to those who were hand in glove with the BJP. Don’t the common workers feel like becoming MLAs? Why can’t they get tickets?”

Randhawa further said at the Issru conference that it was time to protect the Congress party’s honour in Punjab. Equating the current situation with the pre-Independence times, the MP said, “During British rule, we started the ‘Pagdi Sambhaal Jatta’ movement to protect our turbans. Now we need a similar movement to protect the Congress party’s honour, its dignity. We won’t let anyone dislodge Congress’s turban.”

“Never before this happened in Congress. Even during Giani Zail Singh’s times, there was factionalism, there were groups within the party, but when we stood on stage, we just spoke about the Congress, nothing else,” Randhawa added, alluding to Warring’s statement.

“The Congress is in our blood. Our families have scripted history for the Congress. Many presidents will come and go, but those who think they can win by ignoring sentiments of common workers can never win,” said Randhawa, whose father Santokh Singh Randhawa was the state party president twice.

Later, speaking to The Indian Express over the phone, Randhawa said, “Whatever is happening in the Congress party today should not happen. It is getting beyond a limit now. This man (Warring) is making a mockery of the party from every stage. It’s all happening publicly.”

Charanjit Singh Channi and Gurkirat Singh Kotli bat for ‘Bandi Singhs’

Meanwhile, Channi and Kotli advocated the release of “Bandi Singhs” (Sikh political prisoners) who have completed their punishment terms but are still languishing in jails.

The issue is back into focus ahead of the 2027 polls and with the recent demand for parole for Babbar Khalsa militant Jagtar Singh Hawara, one of the assassins of former chief minister Beant Singh. Hawara is serving a life term and is seeking parole to meet his ailing mother.

Interestingly, Kotli is the grandson of Beant Singh. He is also the cousin of former Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu, who had shifted from the Congress to the BJP. Bittu too has advocated parole for Hawara and said he was “ready to forget his family’s wounds for the sake of Hawara’s ailing mother”.

At Issru, Kotli said from the stage, “Bandi Sings are being talked about these days… Our family, that of Sardar Beant Singh, we were never a hurdle before, nor now, nor will be in future… Bandi Singhs who have completed their jail terms should be released.”

Channi said, “The BJP-led Centre and Punjab’s AAP government led by Bhagwant Mann are hand in glove. They are doing politics over Bandi Singhs. Our law, our culture doesn’t allow those who have completed their jail terms to be kept imprisoned.”

Gandhi siblings have breached the ticket rule: Ravneet Singh Bittu

Reacting to the Warring-Randhawa spat over tickets, Ravneet Singh Bittu said in Chandigarh on Sunday, “Randhawa saab is absolutely right. When the Gandhi family can get three seats in the Parliament, why can’t any other family get four tickets? Gandhi family has itself breached the Congress’s 2022 Udaipur declaration, which mandated “one family, one ticket”. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, both siblings (Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi) got Lok Sabha tickets, and their mother Sonia Gandhi is a Rajya Sabha member. So which ‘one party, one ticket’ rule is Warring talking about?”