India, July 4 -- Cracks in the Punjab Congress widened on Friday after a section of leaders, including current and past legislators, met at the house of former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi demanding that he be made the state party chief and the party's central leadership rethink an organisational reshuffle it announced earlier this week .

Parallelly, a meeting between Gurdaspur Congress MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi triggered widespread speculation, though both Randhawa and national-level Congress leaders said it was over security issues. Assembly elections are due in the Aam Aadmi Party-ruled state next year.

Randhawa and Channi, currently the MP from Jalandhar, were made chairs of two...