Infighting in the Punjab Congress escalated Thursday when state unit chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said party workers protesting his leadership were “RSS ke chamchon (RSS agents)”.
For weeks, the Punjab Congress has been witnessing widening internal rifts after the party high command decided to retain Warring as the state unit president for the 2027 Assembly elections. Since then, a party faction supporting former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi as the state party chief and CM face has been publicly protesting Warring’s leadership.
In Ludhiana on Thursday, at a “Har booth Congress mazboot” programme attended by Warring and the All India Congress Committee (AICC)’s Punjab in-charge Bhupesh Baghel, supporters of Channi loyalist and former state minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu raised slogans of “Baghel go back”, “Ashu zindabad” and “Channi zindabad” after the state chief’s supporters shouted “Warring zindabad”.
Reacting from the stage, Warring said, “RSS ke chamchon baahar jaao (RSS agents, go out)… Ludhiana doesn’t belong to any RSS agent. Ludhiana belongs to Punjabis.”
Referring to an alleged foodgrain tenders scam in 2022, in which the Punjab Vigilance Bureau had arrested Ashu and his aides, Warring said, “One should not forget who fed rotis to some people when they were in vigilance custody. And today, they are protesting against me and disrupting our programme.” Ashu had spent over a year in jail, though the FIRs against him were later quashed by the High Court.
Tensions between Ashu and Warring have been brewing since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when the Congress fielded Warring, then the Gidderbaha MLA, to contest from Ludhiana, ignoring Ashu, a local face and former two-time Ludhiana West MLA. Warring went on to win Ludhiana.
Though Ashu did not attend the Thursday event, he has since criticised Warring for labelling Congress workers as “RSS agents”. Warring’s remarks may backfire, particularly in Ludhiana.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Ashu said, “I have no idea from where this RSS angle is coming. One should do some investigation and find out if I ever met any BJP or RSS leader… Had I joined the BJP, like many others did, none would have dared to arrest me, but I always fought for the Congress. I even supported Warring’s candidature from Ludhiana in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.”
Ashu’s wife Mamta, a former three-time councillor in Ludhiana, lashed out at Warring for his remarks, saying, “Many of the Congress’s elected councillors and those who fought on party tickets were among the people whom our (Warring) has termed RSS agents… Just because they said ‘Ashu zindabad’, they are RSS agents? Warring is also Ludhiana MP, but did he speak about city or Punjab’s issues even once? Ashu is the one who went to jail and even did not change his party unlike many others.”
When asked who he was referring to with his “RSS agents” remark, Warring told The Indian Express, “There were 10-12 people in the gathering who I suspect were from the RSS. I did not take anyone’s name, especially any Congress councillor or Ashu’s supporters. But certainly there were people from the RSS we can identify. My confidants told me that some RSS men were present who disrupted our programme.”
Several Congress workers in Ludhiana said they were “hurt” by Warring’s remarks.
Ishwarjot Singh Cheema, the party’s Ludhiana South in-charge, said, “Even if some workers were raising pro-Ashu slogans, Warring should know that Ashu too is a Congress leader, not an outsider. But it hurt when he called us ‘RSS ke chamche’. He knows all of us, we campaigned for him in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. His remarks were unfortunate.”
Congress block president Inderjit Singh Indi, who was part of a group of 400 councillors, office-bearers and other party workers at the Thursday event, said, “(After pro-Warring slogans were raised) we reacted with pro-Ashu slogans and Warring called us RSS agents. Is this how the head of a family treats his own family members? Were we not the RSS agents when we sat on the booths and asked for votes for him in 2024? We went to have a conversation with Baghel but they did not let it happen.”
Congress leader and ex-IAS officer Kuldip Singh Vaid, a Warring supporter, said, “It is the misfortune of the Congress that this spectacle was presented before Baghel. Whenever a handful of people do such things to disrupt official events, we get apprehensive that external agents like the BJP and RSS can do such things. There is no evidence but there can be RSS sleeper cells. Ashu is a senior leader, but why was there a need to raise slogans in his name?”
Reacting to the RSS being dragged into the Congress’s infighting, Yash Giri, convener of the Punjab RSS’s social harmony wing, said, “It is an old habit to blame everything unpleasant on the RSS… One must ask the Punjab Congress leadership that if they knew RSS men were in their party, why were they given tickets and made councillors, MLAs and ministers?”
Punjab BJP spokesperson Pritpal Singh Baliawal said, “If Warring is seeing the RSS in his own men’s faces, it means he is really scared of the BJP. It was their official party event and their elected councillors were present. If Warring feels his men can work better for us and align with our ideology, they are most welcome in our party.”
Several Congress workers in Ludhiana said they were “hurt” by Warring’s remarks.
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