Chandigarh: It was meant to look like unity. One car, several top leaders, everyone smiling for the cameras. Instead, the video has become the day’s biggest joke for the opposition.
After a long meeting with the central leadership in Chandigarh on Monday, senior Punjab Congress faces got into a single SUV. Sachin Pilot was driving. K.C. Venugopal sat next to him in the front. Packed into the back seat were Pargat Singh, Partap Singh Bajwa, Charanjit Singh Channi and Raja Warring. Four big names squeezed together like that was never going to stay quiet.
Pilot tried to play it down. “I was driving, and Venugopal ji was sitting in the front. It was Pargat Singh ji’s car. Raja ji and Channi ji were sitting with us. Bajwa ji hosted the lunch,” he said. The message they wanted was simple: after the meeting, everyone is on the same page.
The opposition saw something else. AAP’s Baltej Pannu went straight for the punch. “Punjab Congress is sitting in the laps of the leaders from Delhi! Neither is Pilot from Moga nor is Venugopal from Hoshiarpur! Poor state president Pargat Singh did not even get a seat,” he posted, adding a sarcastic line in Punjabi.
BJP’s Ravneet Singh Bittu was no less sharp. “The leaders from Delhi have tied up the Punjab Congress into a bundle and thrown it into the car. Keep an eye on whether they manage to get out safely,” he said.
The timing is awkward for Congress. The party has been dealing with open faction fights for months. Channi’s camp and Warring’s camp have been at each other through posters, slogans at meetings and public statements. The high command has been telling them to stop washing dirty linen in public and focus on the 2027 elections. Pilot was brought in as the new in-charge to try and fix the mess. Monday’s meeting was part of that clean-up. Venugopal and Pilot sat the senior leaders down and made it clear that public bickering and internal sabotage would not be tolerated.
The car ride was supposed to seal the deal. Instead, it handed the opposition free material. The picture of Delhi leaders in the front and the Punjab faces jammed in the back is now being sold as proof that the state unit is being run from outside.
Congress has been trying hard to show it is united. Leaders keep saying the party is ready to take on the AAP government on drugs and law and order. A big rally with Rahul Gandhi is planned for 4 November in Sangrur. The carpool was meant to feed that story. Now it has become the opposite story.
Punjab politics has always had its share of theatre. This time the theatre came on four wheels. What was planned as a quiet show of solidarity has turned into a public roast, and the opposition is happy to keep the jokes rolling.
For Congress, the real question is whether the meetings and the warnings actually change anything on the ground. The crowded SUV video will keep circulating for a few days. The bigger problem remains the same: making people believe the unity is real and not just a forced photo that went wrong.
Sources: NDTV, Moneycontrol, Hindustan Times reports on the Chandigarh meeting and reactions from AAP and BJP.
@Rohit Manral
