Bhupesh Baghel came to Punjab to bolster Congress. Then it all went wrong

The nine-day tour also followed an earlier, five-day Chandigarh exercise by Baghel in July, which had been intended to address much the same problem — and produced little breakthrough.

6 min readChandigarhAug 12, 2026 07:00 AM IST First published on: Aug 12, 2026 at 07:00 AM IST On July 31, the Congress in Punjab was hoping to “strengthen itself in weak booths” with AICC general secretary in-charge for Punjab Bhupesh Baghel’s nine-day organisational tour of the state. Instead, by the end of the visit on August 8, the party found itself firefighting internal power struggles and fissures as public clashes erupted between rival factions. At the centrestage of the clashes were supporters of former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, state Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and sometimes those of Baghel himself.