Chandigarh, Aug 29: A day after Congress MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa spoke about “compromised leaders” in the party, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said on Saturday that he would ask him whom he was referring to.
“Randhawa saab is our senior leader and was the home minister of Punjab. When we shared stage, he spoke about compromised leaders and sleeper cells many a times. You must have heard him saying this at rallies,” Warring said, when asked about the senior leader’s reference to “sleeper cells” and “compromised leaders” in the Congress.
Warring agreed with Randhawa that there are “sleeper cells” in all parties.
“(Ravneet Singh) Bittu used to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and later, he left (the Congress and joined the BJP),” he said.
Warring said he would ask Randhawa about such leaders and whether he was talking about those meeting Shah and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
“I will ask Randhawa saab and make it clear that who are compromised and (working as) sleeper cells,” he said.
Replying to another question about not being present at the party’s Rakhar Punia conference in Baba Bakala on Friday, Warring said it is not necessary that all the senior leaders will be present at all the places all the time.
He pointed out that there were many senior Congress leaders who did not attend the conference.
Internal rift within the Punjab Congress again surfaced on Friday when Warring skipped the event on the occasion of Rakhar Punia.
The event was attended by former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Randhawa, MLAs Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Rana Gurjeet Singh.
During his address on Friday, Randhawa, without taking any name, said, “We need ‘jujharu’ (belligerent) leaders, those who can fight. We do not need those who are compromised.”
The Punjab Congress has been facing factionalism, despite repeated assertions by the party leadership that efforts are on to strengthen organisational unity ahead of the 2027 Punjab Assembly polls.
The infighting came to the fore when the Congress leadership on July 1 announced its decision to retain Warring as the state unit chief and appoint Channi as the chairperson of its campaign committee.
A section of leaders led by Channi opposed the move to retain Warring as the Punjab Congress president and sought his removal from the position. Channi’s supporters have been seeking that he be announced the Congress’s chief-ministerial face for the 2027 polls.
Warring also cautioned Mann against taking any action against the government employees who went on a strike on August 27.
He asserted that protest is a democratic right of the employees as long as they do it lawfully.
“You cannot intimidate and bully them using the threats of action,” he said while challenging the chief minister to try his authority of acting against the employees. “It will have far-reaching consequences for the chief minister which he must never have imagined,” he said.
