‘Compromised’: Rahul Gandhi's favourite word for PM Modi hits Punjab Congress ranks

Channi camp's Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said party needs “not a compromising leader”, Raja Warring hit back with some loaded agreement.

For months now, “compromised” has been the Congress's word of choice for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Saturday, it turned up inside the party's own house, in a spat over who should lead the Congress in Punjab.

Channi, Baghel, Randhawa and others at a meeting in Chandigarh where Raja Warring was not invited; both Channi and Raja have in their own ways had Rahul Gandhi's backing in the past. (ANI, File Photos)

After a meeting between Congress national unit's Punjab in-charge Bhupesh Baghel and leaders close to former CM Charanjit Singh Channi, senior party leader Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa from Channi's camp said the party needed “a leader who speaks forcefully” and “not a compromising leader”.

Channi, 63, a leader from the Dalit community whom Rahul Gandhi reportedly chose as CM in the last big Congress rift before the 2022 polls when Capt Amarinder Singh was removed, was standing next to Randhawa, nodding along. The Congress and Channi, as CM face, lost that election to the AAP in a landslide, but Channi later became MP from Jalandhar in 2024.

He said he agreed with Randhawa — who happens to be from the dominant Jat Sikh community like Warring — even though they are in opposite camps for now.

“Who is compromised? Has he taken any names? If not, why are you people pointing it at me?... We do not need any sleeper cell or compromised leader in our party,” he told PTI, before adding that he and Randhawa would “sort out” their differences soon. He also jibed at leaders who he said had met “people from the BJP, those from UP, and from AAP”.

Baghel did not distance himself from the word “compromised”.

“Yes, I agree that any leader who is compromised will not work. If any leader will be compromised by BJP, it will not work. It is my responsibility that I won't let it happen,” the former CM of Chhattisgarh said in response to a question later.

Neither Randhawa nor Warring invoked Modi or drew any national parallel in their remarks. But the word they reached for is not a neutral one in Congress's current vocabulary — it is the same word the party's central leadership, Rahul Gandhi effectively at its helm and Mallikarjun Kharge the formal president, has spent months hammering PM Modi and his BJP-led NDA regime with.

A word with a history

Counting since May alone, it started with Rahul Gandhi's X posts calling Modi “compromised” and alleging a connection between the trade deal in the works with the US and PM Modi's alleged “crony capitalist” friends.

By June, party materials were describing Modi outright as “compromised” and alleging the administration functions as a “private marketing agency” for oligarchs. Congress state-level communications were also running ads and social media trends around a “compromised PM, selling India's interests”. Modi has not responded, but the BJP has combated these allegations as “anti-national remarks”.

Punjab rift

The word arrived at a fraught moment for the Punjab Congress unit, though. The rift traces back to July 1 in the immediate, when the high command retained Warring as Punjab Congress president and named Channi chairperson of the campaign committee — a decision that led to Channi skipping a week of meetings Baghel held with party leaders after arriving in Punjab on July 6.

Baghel repeatedly ruled out any rethink through the week, telling reporters on July 9 that the leadership question was not “gudda-guddi ka khel” — child's play — and that high command decisions, once taken, “do not change”.

Saturday's 80-minute sit-down with the Channi camp at Rana Gurjit Singh's Chandigarh residence — attended by Channi, Randhawa, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, but not Warring — was billed by Baghel as an informal conversation rather than a negotiation.

“This is not a meeting... When you stay like family, there are many talks that happen, which is not disclosed publicly,” he said.

If any leader will be compromised by BJP, it will not work. It is my responsibility that I won't let it happen.

Bhupesh Baghel at the HT Mohali office earlier this week for an interview. Seen along with him is Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring.

He also sought to shut down speculation that Channi was being lined up as the party's chief ministerial face for 2027.

Partap Singh Bajwa, playing the calm patriarch at 69, called the meeting a “culmination” of long-standing worker sentiment and said Baghel had promised to carry every concern “word for word” to the high command.

Punjab goes to the assembly polls in early 2027, and the party's central leadership has staked its position on Warring's continuity, citing the 2024 Lok Sabha result in which Congress won seven of the state's 13 seats under him. But Saturday's “compromised” exchange showed Baghel's “all is well” claim may not be a done deal as of now.