Chandigarh/Sangrur: The Congress moved onto the front foot in Punjab on Monday, with state president Pargat Singh claiming the party has finalised its candidates for all 117 Assembly seats — days after the ruling AAP became the first party to actually announce names, with a first list of 40 — and the party's Punjab in-charge Sachin Pilot using a visit to the ground of Rahul Gandhi's November 4 rally to attack the Bhagwant Mann government over law and order and drugs.
At a press conference at Punjab Congress Bhawan in Sector 15, Chandigarh, Pargat Singh said the Congress was fully prepared for the 2027 Assembly elections, had completed its preparations, and could announce its candidates whenever the leadership decided. The names have not been announced; this is the state president's claim of readiness, made with Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa beside him and former minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla and Dr Raj Kumar Verka also present. Pargat also said arrangements for Rahul Gandhi's 'Insaaf Rally' at Phaguwala village in Sangrur on November 4 were complete, and that the expected turnout had risen beyond the one lakh the party initially expected — again, the party's own expectation; former minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa had claimed a day earlier that the rally would draw more than two lakh people.
Reacting separately to Monday's defection of three AAP MLAs to the BJP, Pargat told ANI: "This is a sinking ship. They are paving the way for the BJP. ED raids, CBI raids… I am telling my leaders: fight boldly. This is merely a tactic to scare and threaten people." That is his allegation — that central agencies are being used to intimidate leaders into switching sides; no evidence for it was presented in the reports read, and the BJP and the agencies are not quoted responding to it. At the Chandigarh press conference, Bajwa made a parallel charge, questioning whose directions the CBI and ED follow during election periods and alleging their functioning raises concerns about political interference (his allegation). Bajwa also raised the issue of the bodies of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota, Daljit Singh and another person, alleging their last rites had not been performed, and hinted that new political equations between the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal could emerge after Diwali — a hint only; no BJP–SAD alliance has been formally announced.
Pilot's attack was the campaign's substantive edge. Reviewing the rally arrangements at Phaguwala village on Monday, accompanied by former minister Vijay Inder Singla, the Congress general secretary criticised the Mann government over alleged failures in maintaining law and order, raising drug trafficking, extortion networks, shootings and gangster-related activity, and said the Chief Minister — who also holds the Home portfolio — must take responsibility for the situation. He alleged that the Punjab administration is being controlled by AAP's leadership in Delhi, that the police machinery is being used to serve the ruling party's interests, and that taxpayers' money is spent on political publicity (his allegations). He also expressed concern over reports of voters' names being removed from electoral rolls, saying his team was examining the matter through booth-level analysis, alleged that the BJP attempts to weaken regional parties by encouraging defections — pointing to the departure of AAP MPs and MLAs as a sign of an internal crisis in the ruling party — and claimed the SAD has lost its political relevance in Punjab.
What is verified and what is claimed: AAP's first list of 40 candidates, announced on October 31 with Mann contesting again from Dhuri, is confirmed by multiple outlets, as is the November 4 date and Sangrur venue of Rahul Gandhi's rally, first announced by Pargat Singh and reviewed at the Congress high command's October 31 Delhi meeting. Everything else in this report — the 117 names being ready, the turnout figures, the agency-intimidation charges and Pilot's law-and-order indictment — is what Congress leaders say; the reports read carried no AAP response to these specific statements.
Why it matters: the Congress has spent months fighting its own factional battles in Punjab, most recently replacing its state chief. Monday's double move — a readiness claim meant to answer AAP's head start on candidates, and its national in-charge fronting the attack a day before Rahul Gandhi launches the campaign from the Chief Minister's home district — is the party's attempt to present itself, rather than the BJP or the SAD, as the alternative of 2027. Whether the claim of 117 ready candidates survives contact with an actual list is the test that follows the rally.