Congress charts strategy to emerge as AAP’s main challenger in Punjab Assembly elections

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As the Punjab Assembly elections draw closer, the Indian National Congress, the principal Opposition party in the State, is formulating its electoral strategy in a bid to position itself as the primary challenger to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The party has been grappling with internal discord, and efforts to address it have gathered pace through a series of meetings. In February this year, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, during his visit to Punjab, gave a stern message to the State unit, asking leaders to work as a “team”, days after Congress leader and former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi called for “greater Dalit representation” in the party, saying Dalits were not getting due representation. The remarks brought internal differences within the party into public view.

The three-member panel comprising Ajay Maken, Meenakshi Natarajan, and Bhajan Lal Jatav, set up by the Congress on June 11 to assess and submit a report on the current political situation in Punjab, has held several rounds of meetings in New Delhi over the past two days. The panel has met several senior Congress leaders, including Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Congress Working Committee member Vijay Inder Singla, former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, former State Congress chief Shamsher Singh Dullo and Mr. Channi, among others.

Party sources indicated that a change in the top leadership of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) is also under discussion, keeping in mind the complexities of caste, community, religion and regional considerations in Punjab politics.

As the party high command continues to weigh continuity under incumbent PPCC president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring against possible alternatives such as Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Partap Singh Bajwa or even former Union Minister and current Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari, who is seen by some le