Chaotic scenes, scuffle at Punjab Cong event

Ludhiana: The internal rift within the Punjab Congress seems to show no signs of abating with an organisational meeting, convened here on Thursday to take stock of the party’s preparations for the 2027 assembly elections, witnessing “go back” slogans and protests against senior leaders Bhupesh Baghel and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring.

Both Congress’s Punjab in-charge Baghel and the party’s state president Warring attended the meeting at the Guru Nanak Bhawan. Some people wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan “Baghel Go Back” were spotted at the event venue and they raised slogans against both Baghel and Warring, alleging that the party leadership was disregarding internal dissent.

The situation escalated when Warring allegedly referred to the protesting members as “RSS agents” during his address asking them to leave, prompting renewed sloganeering and a brief scuffle between his supporters and allegedly those of former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu. The disruption undermined the party’s efforts to project unity and once again brought the Punjab Congress’s internal divisions into public focus. Warring, who is also the MP from Ludhiana, took on his detractors and those who tried to disrupt the programme.

Without naming anyone, he said he had personally helped some of them “when they were hounded by the state vigilance bureau” and now they are raising slogans.