Factionalism within the Punjab Congress was once again on display at a party event in Ludhiana on Thursday, where supporters of Charanjit Singh Channi and Bharat Bhushan Ashu traded slogans with the Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Raja Warring camp. A major scuffle between supporters of Ashu and former MLA Simarjit Bains was averted during the programme.Ashu’s supporters, including Jattvibeny Bhalla, Pankaj Sharma Kaka and Inderjit Indi, who were seated in the front rows, began raising slogans as Warring and other senior leaders reached the stage. The slogan-shouting drew objections from Warring’s supporters, including the Bains brothers.In response, the second group allegedly raised slogans of “RSS workers bahar jao”. Ashu’s supporters objected to the sloganeering and reportedly conveyed their displeasure to AICC Punjab in-charge Bhupesh Baghel. They alleged that Warring himself was encouraging such slogans, describing them as unacceptable.“Out of good faith, we all went to the venue. Ashu’s supporters started raising slogans in his favour, but did not say anything against Baghel or Warring or anyone else. Instead of tackling it in a sensible manner, Warring, along with his supporters, started raising slogans, ‘RSS workers wapis jao’. And workers from both groups lost tempers but we all decided to walk off before it took an ugly turn,” said Ishwarjot Cheema, a close aide of Ashu.A group of Congress workers from the Valmiki community arrived wearing T-shirts carrying an image depicting Baghel as General Dyer, along with the slogan “Baghel go back”. They raised slogans against Baghel outside the venue and waved the T-shirts during the meeting.Addressing a press conference, Warring said they would be sending a report regarding the disruption in the meeting to the party high command. He claimed that he had been informed in advance about an alleged attempt by “RSS men” to disrupt the programme.“Those who tried to disrupt today’s programme were the agents of the RSS and were doing it at the behest of the saffron organisation,” he said.Taking a swipe at his critics, Warring said he had personally supported some of those now opposing him. “I got one of them out of the Vigilance Bureau’s custody, and today the same person is raising slogans against me,” Warring remarked.Emphasising collective ownership of the party, Warring said the Congress was not the personal domain of any individual leader but belonged to all its workers and supporters.Addressing party workers, Baghel stressed the need for unity and vigilance within the Congress, asserting that individuals working against the party’s interests from within posed a serious challenge.Baghel made it clear that indiscipline had no place in the party. “There will be zero tolerance towards indiscipline and those who tried to disrupt the party programme will be identified and action will be taken against them. Nobody will be spared,” he said.He said while the Congress’ external opponents were clearly identifiable, there were also “sleeper cells” and “internal saboteurs” within the organisation who needed to be exposed and removed.Simarjit Bains said there were around 2,500 Congress workers in the meeting and opposing them were just 45 people. “If they really wanted to oppose today’s meeting, they should have come in large numbers, but in reality they were few in number. Those who were protesting today belonged to the RSS,” he said.Senior Congress leader Surinder Dawar said disrupting the party programme was not in good taste. “If there are personal differences between leaders, they should sit with the high command and resolve them rather than creating a scene like this,” he said.