Chandigarh: Even as senior Congress leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu has resigned as the working president of the Punjab Congress after his defeat in the Ludhiana West bypoll on Monday, the internal rift within the party is set to widen in days to come.
It may be recalled that the former minister and a two-time legislator Ashu had resigned on ``moral ground’’ after losing the bypoll to AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora by a margin of over 10,600 votes on Monday, he said that he took the responsibility for the defeat as he had asked from party high command that his chosen team would manage his campaign.
Ashu had also urged the party high command that party state chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Partap Singh Bajwa should not campaign for him because of his differences with them.
Notably, Ashu’s campaign was run by another set of senior leaders including former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and MLAs Rana Gurjeet Singh and Pargat Singh and Warring and Bajwa were conspicuous for their absence throughout the poll campaigns. Though, none of the senior leaders are openly saying it, talks are agog and some of other leaders, especially those having allegiance with Channi’s camp, are likely to resign from the party posts.
However, with the leaders belonging to Warring camp – who did not want to be named – saying that Ashu’s defeat showed that how his differences with the state leadership could damage his prospects, the ones from Channi and Ashu’s camp held that the state leaders worked to derail Ashu’s canvassing.
Outcome: Ashu could muster only 24,542 votes – 27.22% vote share which was down from 28.06% in 2022 assembly polls when he had secured over 32,000 votes; this also showed an erosion in the party’s support in the region.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that the state party affairs incharge Bhupesh Baghel is likely to call a meeting of the state leaders in the next few days to thrash out the differences in the faction-ridden party.
