The fate of Amrinder Singh Raja Warring as the Punjab Congress chief remains uncertain, with the party high command delaying a decision in an apparent bid to defuse internal tensions and insisting that dissenting leaders should uphold its authority.Sulking leaders say they are in a “cooling-off period” and are awaiting Rahul Gandhi’s final decision. Party sources say the call could come within the next fortnight or after the Monsoon Session of Parliament that concludes on August 21.The open feud in the Punjab Congress comes following AICC general secretary in-charge for Punjab Bhupesh Baghel’s inability to make peace between the warring factions, even though he met all sides during his week-long stay in Chandigarh.Party sources also insist that the Ajay Maken-led committee — including Meenakshi Natarajan and Bhajan Lal Jatav — which had sought to settle the leadership issue before Rahul Gandhi went abroad, had actually backed a change.One name doing the rounds was that of former CM Charanjit Singh Channi, a Dalit face from the influential Doaba region, while another was Vijay Inder Singla, a Hindu leader from Sangrur, which is Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann’s home turf.Yet, the party high command chose to retain Warring along with Partap Singh Bajwa, the latter as Leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP). Channi was given the role of the campaign committee chairman for the state poll scheduled for early next year.The leaders have since met the powerful AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal in Delhi to air their views, but the attempted power-balancing formula has clearly collapsed.A rebellion is staring the Congress in the face, with barely six months left to go to the poll. Channi, along with other senior leaders like Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Rana Gurjeet Singh, has refused to accept Warring his leader.An irritated Delhi has since given Channi and Randhawa a public dressing-down for washing their dirty linen in public, while publicly maintaining that dissent in internal meetings is a sign of a healthy democracy.Clearly, the crisis is a textbook case of structural decay, right from the central to the state leadership. Top leaders are more focused on wielding power and fortifying their domains, rather than on strengthening the party.For over a decade, Punjab Congress leadership has remained struck in self-destructive mode — Capt Amarinder Singh vs Partap Singh Bajwa, Navjot Singh Sidhu vs Capt Amarinder Singh, and right now, the rebellion by the Channi camp against Warring.Both in Delhi and in Punjab, the party has multiple power centres, each backed by its own lobby.Party leaders who spoke to The Tribune on condition of anonymity say that while there used to be a single power centre in the Congress, there are many today —Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Mallikarjun Kharge, and KC Venugopal.All have their own lobbies, which keep clashing. The personal aspirations of these leaders to put their interests above the party are fuelled by these multiple layers of power centres within the AICC, sources say.But there is another twist to the Punjab crisis. Just as the decision on Singla’s name was about to be announced, Channi is said to have changed his stance and demanded the position for himself.Messages against Singla were pushed by leaders who wanted Channi to step into Warring’s shoes.“It may have been because Channi, being the principal Dalit face of the Congress in Punjab, believed he would be able to influence the high command’s decision-making and therefore push for more,” said a senior state Congress leader, who did not wish to be quoted.Political analysts say removing Warring under pressure would have sent the wrong message and encouraged other regional leaders to adopt similar tactics whenever a decision goes against them.It would also make the high command appear weak and make Channi too powerful in the state.As the Congress struggles to put its house in order, the rival BJP is busy expanding its presence on the ground in Punjab.PM Modi, during his Friday outing in Jalandhar, hit out at Congress for its internal feud.