The three-member panel appointed by the Congress on Tuesday held one-on-one interactions with senior Punjab leaders, including sitting MPs and MLAs in Delhi, focusing on the current political situation and major issues which need to be highlighted in the poll-bound state.Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa speaks to media after the meeting in Delhi.The panel comprising Ajay Maken, Meenakshi Natarajan and Bhajan Lal Jatav was constituted by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on June 11. It has been tasked with assessing the current political scenario in Punjab, where the state assembly polls are due early next year and submit a report to the party leadership.According to a senior party leader, who attended the meeting, the observers sought views on major issues in Punjab.“It was a one-on-one interaction in which the panel asked about the current political scenario and what the party should do to return to power in the state. The leaders highlighted issues such as the deteriorating law and order situation, drug menace, unemployment and corruption,” a Congress MLA, who was part of the interaction, said, pleading anonymity.On the first day, senior party leaders, including Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, former chief minister and Jalandhar MP Charanjit Singh Channi, former deputy chief minister and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla and CWC member Vijay Inder Singla, former CM Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and former Punjab Congress chief Shamsher Singh Dullo, met the three observers.On Wednesday, the panel will meet the former cabinet ministers of Punjab and all district Congress presidents of the state.A day after, a list of nearly 30 special invitees will be called for a meeting, after which the report will be submitted to the AICC president and Rahul Gandhi.A senior party leader said the Congress is unlikely to project a chief ministerial face and will contest the assembly elections under collective leadership. However, the leader, who didn’t wish to be named, stressed that any decision on organisational changes should be taken early to address factionalism and boost workers’ morale.After meeting the observers, Bajwa said he had urged the party high command to resolve issues concerning the Punjab unit at the earliest.Talking to reporters in Delhi, Randhawa said a detailed discussion took place on issues concerning Punjab ahead of the assembly polls.He further said gangsterism is the biggest issue in Punjab at present, besides other issues like corruption.The Gurdaspur MP said a discussion on the issues of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and recent civic body elections in the state also took place.Bhattal said feedback from the state party leaders about the current political situation was taken in the run-up to the assembly elections.Asked about factionalism in the state unit, the former chief minister asserted that there was no infighting in the Punjab Congress.Earlier, Congress general secretary in charge of Punjab Bhupesh Baghel had rejected speculation that the party was mulling a change in leadership in the state. He asserted that the coming assembly polls would be contested collectively by leaders. (With inputs from Agencies)