Bharat Bhushan Ashu (left), Pargat Singh (center), and Kushaldeep Dhillon (right)
The Congress party’s defeat in the Ludhiana West by-election is not just another electoral loss – it is the symptom of a deeper rot eating away at the heart of the party in Punjab. When three senior leaders—Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Pargat Singh, and Kushaldeep ‘Kikki’ Dhillon – resign in unison after the result, the message is clear: the state unit of the Congress is no longer functioning as a political party. It’s operating as a battleground of egos, grudges, and silent sabotage.
Ashu’s loss to the AAP candidate by a wide margin should have set off alarms within the Congress high command. Instead, what followed was a blame game wrapped in resignation letters – both literal and metaphorical. And as is customary in the Congress playbook, no heads rolled at the top. Just like after the 2022 assembly defeat, the top brass watched as the edifice cracked further, offering symbolism over strategy.
Let’s be clear – this wasn’t merely an electoral setback. This was a public exposure of the deep factional fault lines that have long crippled Punjab Congress. During the bypoll, state president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa remained conspicuously absent. Their silence, their distance, and their indifference during the campaign are not just political miscalculations – they are betrayals. When the party’s own generals won’t show up to fight, how can the foot soldiers believe in the battle?
What is perhaps more dangerous than the loss itself is the normalization of these fractures. Punjab Congress today resembles an apartment complex where each floor functions independently, with no concern for what’s happening upstairs or down below. There’s no shared strategy, no ideological glue, and clearly, no accountability. Resignations, instead of acting as moments of reckoning, are now PR exercises – temporary offerings at the altar of internal chaos.
The Congress can no longer afford this brand of dysfunction, especially in Punjab – a state where it once held emotional, historical, and political significance. That space is now being rapidly filled by the Aam Aadmi Party, which may be far from perfect, but at least understands the power of cohesive messaging and united front.
One cannot overlook the fact that this isn’t an isolated incident. The party’s Punjab unit has been in freefall since the 2021 leadership coup against Captain Amarinder Singh. The elevation of Charanjit Singh Channi, the internal revolt by Navjot Sidhu, and the subsequent leadership vacuums have all contributed to a narrative of instability and opportunism. And yet, no serious effort has been made to reinvent, rebuild, or re-energize the cadre.
So where does Punjab Congress go from here?
It needs to start with humility. Not the performative kind seen in coordinated resignations, but real, soul-searching humility that asks hard questions. Why have voters turned away? Why are party leaders cannibalizing one another? Why is the central leadership so reluctant to take hard decisions?
Punjab needs a responsible opposition. The state is facing economic distress, an agrarian crisis, and deep youth unrest. Congress, for all its legacy, still has the infrastructure, faces, and voter recall to offer that alternative. But none of it will matter if the party continues to implode every time an election is called.
This is a moment of reckoning. The Congress must choose: continue bleeding from self-inflicted wounds or cauterize, course-correct, and rise again. But make no mistake – if it doesn’t act now, it will soon become irrelevant, even in Punjab.
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