Amritsar: Fissures within Punjab Congress came into sharper focus on Independence Day, with Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa openly challenging state party president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring’s policy of limiting assembly tickets to one member of a family.Responding to Warring’s position that only one member of a family should be given a ticket, Randhawa said there should be no numerical restriction if multiple members of a family were capable of winning their respective seats. He argued that winnability, rather than family affiliation, should be the primary criterion for candidate selection.Speaking at a political conference at Issru in Ludhiana district, Randhawa said even four members of the same family could be considered for tickets if they had the ability to win their respective constituencies. “We have to look at the winnability criterion. If four people can win their seats, why should they be denied tickets merely because they belong to the same family? All four should get the ticket,” he later told TOI.Former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who also addressed the Issru gathering, has previously differed with Warring over leadership in the state unit.Warring has advocated the one-family-one-ticket principle, citing a directive issued by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The issue had also figured during the party’s recently concluded ‘Har Booth Congress Mazboot’ campaign, with Warring opposing demands from some party functionaries for more than one ticket to a family.Randhawa’s public disagreement comes as Punjab Congress continues to face differences over leadership and electoral strategy ahead of the 2027 assembly elections.The disagreement over ticket distribution adds another point of contention within the state Congress as the party prepares its electoral strategy for the 2027 polls.
