NEW DELHI: Congress is learnt to have sternly told the dissenting Punjab leaders to stick with party discipline and not air their grievances against the state chief in public.The message was conveyed after a prolonged show of public opposition by senior state members to the appointment of Amarinder Raja Warring as Punjab Congress president. AICC general secretary K C Venugopal Thursday met Punjab functionaries Charanjit Channi, Sukhjinder Randhawa, Pargat Singh, and Rana Gurjeet at the Congress headquarters. Sources said the discussions were one on one between the AICC and the state members.According to sources, the Punjab leaders have also been told that any complaints or reservations about internal party matters should be addressed to the organisational forum or to the leadership through designated channels. They have been told that any dissent in the open only gives political fodder to Congress rivals, which is not acceptable. Channi later said, “We have put our case before the party. We will toe the party line, we are with the party.”State incharge Bhupesh Baghel submitted his report on dissidence to Venugopal Wednesday. Later, Baghel suggested that there would not be a change in the state leadership, in what amounted to a rebuff to the dissidents. Sources said the Punjab leaders were apparently told by Venugopal that the party would not accept any “armtwisting”. According to sources, the stress was on discipline and focusing on the coming state elections.Party managers claimed the state leaders do not have any list of demands, but have a single point heartburn that they did not become the state president as they had expected. Channi and Randhawa were expecting a leg up in a likely reshuffle after the party undertook a review of the state organisation through an AICC panel. Congress later announced that it was sticking to the status quo of Warring as state chief, while appointing Channi as the campaign committee incharge and Randhawa as the coordination committee incharge- in what are two election related panels.A senior AICC leader said the party is not sure of how the state leaders will react to the message of “discipline”, and will wait for their future action. However, there is optimism that the functioning of the state unit will return to normal very soon.
