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General assembly elections are to be held in Punjab after a few months and all the political parties have intensified preparations for the elections. Some parties have also fielded their candidates but the main opposition party Congress is still stuck in its internal factionalism. Under the leadership of Charanjit Singh Channi, big leaders of Congress have united against party chief Raja Vading, but Rahul Gandhi is still in the mood to give command to Raja. Externally, it appears to be a rebellion against King Vading, but internally political experts are deriving many meanings from it.

The actual discord in Punjab Congress is not just about removing Raja Vading from the post of chief but about changing the chief and making him the head of his camp and then giving tickets to the leaders of his choice i.e. his camp. At the time of elections, the state unit head of the Congress party plays an important role in ticket distribution.

One family fighting over one ticket

There are many leaders from the same family in Punjab Congress who are demanding more than one ticket for their family. Most of such leaders are included in Charanjit Singh Channi's group. Raja Amarinder Singh Raja Vading said that he will not give two tickets to anyone in the same family, he also said that he will not give tickets to such leaders who joined parties other than Congress and then came back to Congress. He clearly targeted many people and presented his stand regarding ticket distribution. He talked about giving tickets to district heads. Obviously most of the district heads are from his own camp.

Randhawa replied

Veteran Punjab Congress leader and former Deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who is part of the Channi faction, targeted this statement of Raja Vading. Randhawa even said that if four members of a family have the ability to win the elections, then the party can give them four tickets. That means now party leaders are openly fighting over tickets. However, Randhawa was also criticized for his statement because what Raja Wadding was saying was according to the views of the Congress Party and Rahul Gandhi. BJP, while accepting Randhawa's statement as correct, targeted the Gandhi family and said that the mother, son and daughter are MPs from the Gandhi family itself, so in Punjab too, one family can be given more tickets.

Randhawa's U turn

After the criticism, Sukhjinder Randhawa took a U-turn and also responded to the allegations against him. He said, 'When I got the ticket, my father was the state president at that time and he had decided to step away from active politics on the same day. If you want to buy a ticket, you will buy only one ticket, otherwise not even one. Tickets will also be taken only from Dera Baba Nanak. Tickets should be given to those who have the potential to win the elections and not to those who flatter.

Will the fight be on tickets only?

The Congress Party had announced its team for the 2027 assembly elections about two months ago. In this team, Raja Vading Pradhan, Charanjit Singh Channi were kept as the Chairman of the Campaign Committee and Pratap Singh Bajwa was kept as the Leader of Opposition but Channi did not accept this. They have openly rebelled since this announcement and are asking for the removal of Pradhan. Raja Vading is saying that if the Congress Party has made the Chairman of the Campaign Committee the CM in many states including Himachal, then Channi can also become the CM.

However, Channi's camp is eyeing the tickets so that maximum number of people from their camp can be given tickets and if the government is formed after the elections, then they can stake claim for CM. The state president plays an important role in giving tickets and this is the reason why Channi's camp is uneasy. Now this fight is being considered in the decisive phase and it is being told that by the end of August the high command will try to bring all the leaders together.