Amarinder Singh will lead the Congress in the Punjab Assembly elections, the party said on Wednesday, a day after several MLAs had demanded his replacement.

“We will fight the elections in 2022 under the leadership of Amarinder Singh,” said Harish Rawat, the AICC general secretary in charge of the state.

This came as a jolt to the dissident group — seven of whom had driven to Dehradun to meet Rawat — but the central leadership’s hand appears to have been strengthened by the clamour inside and outside the party against the allegedly “pro-Pakistan” remarks made by Malwinder Mali and Pyarelal Garg, who are advisers to state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Given the speed with which the BJP latched on to Mali’s and Garg’s remarks, Sidhu’s failure to publicly reprimand them has upset many in the Congress who see this as gifting the Opposition a stick to beat the party with.

Rawat’s statement came ahead of his meeting with the dissident group representatives. After the three-hour meeting with four Punjab ministers and three MLAs, the general secretary said they were not against anyone and were only concerned about the party’s election prospects. “They want to go to the polls with a clear road map so that we can win,” he said.

Possibly reassured that seven of the 20-plus MLAs who had held a meeting on Tuesday in the presence of Sidhu later distanced themselves from claims of a revolt and a couple of others backtracked on Wednesday, Rawat further said: “There’s no threat to the party or government. There’s no threat to chances of our victory either.’’

At the same time, Rawat admitted that a section in the Punjab Congress had serious concerns about the functioning of the state government. Known detractors of Amarinder, some of the rebel leaders fear the district administration might work against them during the elections, sources said. This is their case for pushing for a leadership change.

The next stop of the dissident group of seven could be Delhi, to attempt to meet the party high command. Rawat is also expected to come to Delhi.

On Wednesday, PTI quoted Rawat as saying: “Navjot Singh Sidhu comes from a different background. We made him the Punjab Congress president with an eye on the future. But that doesn’t mean the entire party has been left to him.”

“Sidhu ji is there, Amarinder Singh is there, Rajinder Singh Bajwa is there, Sukhjindher Randhava is there and, above all, a stalwart like Ambika Soni is there. They will all be taken into confidence to resolve the issue,” he added.