Overview
- The central leadership kept Amarinder Singh Raja Warring as Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president and named Charanjit Singh Channi chairman of the Campaign Committee after an early July organisational overhaul.
- Channi and several senior leaders held meetings at his Morinda residence and in Mohali and then stayed away from Baghel’s Chandigarh consultations, signalling active resistance to the high‑command decision.
- Bhupesh Baghel launched a multi‑day visit to Chandigarh to hold committee and district meetings and publicly ruled out reversing the leadership choices while seeking to contain the dispute.
- Sources in Channi’s camp say he has the backing of one MP and six MLAs and that a group of dissident leaders have moved to New Delhi to press the central leadership for reconsideration after Rahul Gandhi returns.
- The row hands the BJP a campaign line that Congress is divided and creates real electoral risk for Congress in Punjab by threatening coordination between the party’s organisational apparatus and its putative mass leaders.