Punjab Congress rift intensifies as AAP attacks over FBI police indictment

Congress MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa warned that the Punjab unit needs a united front for the 2027 assembly polls and rejected "compromised leaders" from heading the campaign. He voiced concerns over law‑and‑order and corruption, calling for decisive leadership while the party high command discussed internal grievances.

The Aam Aadmi Party responded by challenging the Congress on the recent FBI indictment of Punjab police inspector Gurinderjit Singh Nagra, accused of a transnational extortion scheme targeting an Indian‑origin family in California. AAP demanded Randhawa explain his record on gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and revived criticism of the Congress's handling of former Uttar Pradesh gangster Mukhtar Ansari's stay in Ropar jail when Randhawa was Punjab's prisons minister. The indictment also names jailed gangsters Jagdeep Singh (Jaggu Bhagwanpuria) and Lawrence Bishnoi as heads of criminal syndicates operating across India, Canada and the United States.