new delhi a demonstration by congress workers in chandigarh to protest against price rise and the centres policies unintentionally brought to the fore the differences within the party which was recently swept aside in the assembly elections according to reports congresss former state unit chief navjot singh sidhu made a disparaging remark towards unnamed leaders while addressing the gathering on the importance of promoting those with clean image however punjab youth congress chief barinder singh dhillon questioned sidhu why such persons could not be named else it mere drama he reportedly said if congress wanted to make a point through the protest the only message it sent across was the disorganised state of its punjab unit i just said that during protest issues related to protests should be taken up and that names of people should be enunciated clearly if the leader wanted to do so theres no factionalism in the party and everything is fine dhillon was quoted by newsagency ani as sayinghowever it is these differences between its leaders that cost congress dearly in the elections the same differences now make it difficult for the partys national leadership to name a new leader channi silent sidhu gets activesidhu and former chief minister charanjit singh channi were the two leaders which congress expected would take it to victory in the punjab polls however there were repeated incidents which showed differences between the two post the defeat channi has preferred to lie low sidhu on the other hand has been quite active in raising issues for the party now in opposition sidhu has attacked the aap government on several issues be it law and order sacrilege or drugs however after getting routed with him as the state chief can congress give the cricketerturnedpolitician another chance aaps promisesthe aap government under bhagwant mann is sitting pretty with a brute majority of 92 in the 117member assembly yet people of the state also expect it to fulfil many of its key promises cheap power jobs and a monthly stipend to every woman in the state are all promises which will test punjabs already precarious financesan effective opposition can always get back in the reckoning however given its present rudderless situation in the state congress has to be vary of shrinking furtherother leaderscongress is not short of leaders in punjab apart from channi and sidhu both incidentally lost their assembly seats there are others such as sunil jakhar ravneet singh bittu manish tewari amrinder singh raja warring and sukhjinder singh randhawa however many leaders have expressed dissatisfaction with the partys functioning in the recent past bittu was recently in the news for his meeting with prime minister narendra modi as the party looks to appoint a new state chief ensuring that factionalism does not raise its head is going to be a tricky task