Chandigarh, November 15
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today scoffed off at the speculations that the party leadership was divided in Punjab. “The party remains united and together in Punjab and the unity was best exhibited during the Tarn Taran by-election”, the PCC President said in a statement here today.
Warring pointed out that the party was pitched against all odds in Tarn Taran. He noted that the constituency’s core voter base is ‘panthic’ and the Congress has won this seat only once during the last several decades.
Besides, he added, it was faced with a hostile administration and police on the one hand which was unabashedly siding with the ruling party candidate and on the other hand there was a gangster who was blatantly supporting the Akali candidate and intimidating the Congress supporters with open threatening calls.
“Despite that our workers put up a brave fight under a united leadership”, he said, while asking, “name one single leader who did not campaign for the party in Tarn Taran”. Warring asserted that the by-election result is not any referendum on anyone, neither the government nor the Congress as everyone knows how the Aam Aadmi Party has been manipulating and misusing the official machinery to win the by-elections in the state. He said, “party will be examining all aspects, not about Tarn Taran only, but the entire state as we are gearing up for the big fight in 2027”.
On the reports of the Congress being a “divided house”, he remarked, “it is a perennial election time narrative that is always weaved about the Congress ahead of elections”.
“Just go through the news reports ahead of previous elections right from 1997 onwards and you will always find such reports that the Congress is divided, while actually it never has been”, he noted, while asserting, when it comes to fighting elections, “all the leaders set aside their personal differences, if any, to ensure party’s victory”.
“Don’t judge the Congress from the by-election results”, he appealed to people in general and the media in particular, while adding, “if you have to judge us, look at the 2024 General Elections, when Congress won seven of the 13 constituencies while the AAP could win just three”. “Let me assure and guarantee you, we will massively improve upon the parliamentary performance in the 2027 assembly elections”, he said confidently.
