Reduced to just about six legislative assemblies across India, the Congress party is virtually leaving no stone unturned to retain power in Punjab. Just about eight months to go before the crucial 2022 Punjab assembly elections, the Congress national vice-president Rahul Gandhi and the party high command constituted a three-member panel are simultaneously engaged in talks with the state party leaders to resolve the ongoing crisis.

On one hand, the high command-constituted three-member panel is set to start a series of meetings for the next three days in the national capital to resolve the growing resentment within the Punjab party unit by holding one-to-one meetings with the party leaders; on the other hand, Rahul Gandhi on Sunday personally called up state leaders, including three Ministers and some MLAs, to take direct feedback.

To start with, the panel — comprising the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, state party affairs in-charge Harish Rawat, and former MP JP Agarwal — will kickstart the round of meetings with the Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, followed by party MLAs, MPs, former presidents, among others, over the next three days.

The murmurs of dissent within the state party unit over the State Government’s performance in Punjab, led by several senior leaders including the Ministers, has now turned into boisterous voices of rebellion affecting the party’s image in a run up to the state assembly polls, which are slated to be held early next year.

Returning from over a year-long political hibernation, former Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu opened a front against his own party’s government, especially the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, over the unfulfilled pre-poll promises of punishing the guilty of sacrilege and related firing cases besides the drugs trade.

Also, the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s adverse order in Kotkapura firing incident came as a vindication of Sidhu’s criticism of the Government, and many more party leaders, including Ministers, upped the ante against the Chief Minister.

The situation turned so bad that senior party leaders, including Cabinet Ministers Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Charanjit Singh Channi, Rajya Sabha MPs Partap Singh Bajwa and Shamsher Singh Dullo, MLAs Pargat Singh, Surjit Singh Dhiman, and many others, held a series of closed-door meetings to press upon the Government to ensure punishment to the guilty, the Badals, in the sacrilege cases, before the ensuing elections.

If that was not enough, the reports of Vigilance action against Sidhu, a case against Randhawa’s personal assistant, an old ‘Me Too’ case against Channi, and “threats” of “action” against Pargat Singh came to fore, with the anti-Capt Amarinder camp decrying “vendetta” for raising their voices. Virtually, the state party unit was divided into two power centres.

Seeing things getting out of hand, the party high command set up a three-member panel to resolve the internal issues in the state party unit, especially between the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Besides Jakhar, the panel has also invited 25 legislators for the meeting, scheduled to be held in New Delhi on Monday, to take their feedback on the ongoing tussle in the party.

“We will talk to the grassroot leaders, the responsible leaders…We will meet the Chief Minister, party president, Bajwa, Sidhu, Dullo, Ministers like Channi…We will talk to everyone…First, we will talk to the MLAs, then MPs, and then former presidents, and if possible, we will also go Chandigarh and see if some other leaders also wanted to meet us,” Rawat told The Pioneer.

Rawat said, “We will hold a one to one meeting with everyone so that all leaders can talk to us freely and without any pressure. Our effort would be to understand things and find out ways to put up a united fight in the next elections by resolving all differences.”

He said that senior leaders, including Ambika Soni, Ashwani Kumar, among others, would also be invited for the meeting. “We have no preconceived notions about anything…the meetings will be held in a comfortable environment and with open mind, and we are hopeful to bring all leaders together to put up a united face,” he added.

It has been learnt that the panel would wrap up its meetings with the leaders by the first week of June, reportedly by June 2-3, and subsequently submit its report to the Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi for a final decision.

The main challenge ahead the panel is to look for the ways how senior leaders, especially Sidhu, could be accommodated, as all previous efforts to bridge the gap between him and the Chief Minister proved futile.

“As I have already said many times earlier also, Sidhu is a strong leader…he is the party’s future. What role he will get is on the party to decide…My previous efforts could not provide result, but once again, we, as a panel, would make efforts and let’s see how Sidhu and Capt saab would respond…We will find a way through this panel,” said Rawat adding that both Capt Amarinder and Sidhu are senior leaders and we have to find the way out between the two.

As of now, Sidhu is insisting that he should be appointed the state unit president or Deputy Chief Minister — demands categorically denied by the Chief Minister. Accommodating Sidhu on any of the positions would provide him with an opportunity to checkmate Capt Amarinder in the distribution of tickets in the coming Assembly polls. However, Capt Amarinder had offered to make Sidhu a part of his Council of Ministers.

Jakhar, who has already reached the national capital to meet the three-member panel, said that he was yet to know the exact agenda for the meeting and would see how the talks move forward.

At the same time, Rajya Sabha MP Bajwa took to Twitter, asking the party leader to be “courageous”. “Be courageous & answer the call of your conscience. The Almighty & people of Punjab are watching,” he tweeted.

RaGa dials Punjab leaders

At the time when the party high command has tasked the three senior leaders to understand the prevailing crisis in Punjab Congress unit in the poll-bound state, its former national president Rahul Gandhi called up senior party leaders, including Ministers, to listen directly from the horse's mouth.

It has been learnt that Rahul had talked to some leaders, which includes disgruntled Ministers and MLAs, and had talked to them for nearly half an hour.

“He mainly wanted to get first-hand feedback about the party, government’s performance, its standing in the state, among other things. I have openly given all my views and shared my thoughts,” said a senior leader, who did not wish to be named.

Available information suggests that Punjab being one of the few states where Congress is in power, Rahul is taking due interest in resolving the crisis. It has been learnt that he would also participate in the meetings, if needed.