No CM face for Punjab Congress in Assembly polls

New Delhi (Raghwendra Pratap Singh) : No leader in the Punjab Congress will be projected as the party’s chief ministerial face for the 2027 Assembly elections, with the high command opting to strike a balance between Hindu and Sikh leadership while avoiding internal rivalry.

Senior Punjab Congress leaders have held multiple rounds of closed-door meetings with the high command over the past few days to iron out differences and work together.

Sources said that there are three contenders for the post of Punjab Congress president— former CM and Jalandhar MP Charanjit Singh Channi, former Deputy CM and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, and former MP Vijay Inder Singla.

The state leadership does not want to ignore the Hindus, especially as the ruling AAP, after appointing Aman Arora as its Punjab president, is once again focusing on the Hindu vote bank.

On Saturday, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal announced that the Punjab government would build a grand temple dedicated to Mata Sita and her sons, Luv and Kush, in Amritsar, “to preserve the spiritual heritage and promote the values of Sanatan Dharma”.

At the same time, the Congress feels the Sikh vote, especially the Jat vote, cannot be ignored after the Akal Takht’s edict against Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over a controversial video allegedly featuring him. Party leaders believe that the issue is unlikely to subside anytime soon.