Pilot in driver’s seat as Cong looks to avoid crash-landing
In Short
Baghel will now look after Assam, replacing Jitendra Singh. Punjab goes to polls early next year and Pilot’s immediate challenge will be to address factionalism within the state unit ahead of crucial elections
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Sachin Pilot
New Delhi: Congress leader Sachin Pilot has seen several ups and downs in his over two-decades-long career but the party’s youth poster boy is fast-emerging as its go-to trump card to swing electoral fortunes in tough states. That his stature in the Congress is becoming formidable can be gauged from the fact that he has been entrusted with putting the house in order in Punjab where the party is facing infighting right at the cusp of assembly polls with several factions battling it out for an upper hand. The Congress carried out a major organisational reshuffle and appointed Pilot as general secretary in-charge of poll-bound Punjab, replacing Bhupesh Baghel. Incidentally, Pilot till now was in-charge of Chhattisgarh where Baghel is a key leader and a former chief minister.
Baghel will now look after Assam, replacing Jitendra Singh. Punjab goes to polls early next year and Pilot’s immediate challenge will be to address factionalism within the state unit ahead of crucial elections. At a time when other political parties have stepped up preparations for the Punjab elections, the Congress has largely been seen firefighting the internal feud and bickering despite repeated assertions by the leadership that the efforts were underway to strengthen the organisational unity ahead of the polls. The infighting was triggered after the Congress leadership on July 1 announced its decision to retain Amrinder Singh Raja Warring as the state unit chief and appoint former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi as the chairperson of its campaign committee. A section of leaders led by Channi opposed the move to retain Warring as the Punjab Congress president and sought his removal from the position.
