Channi emerges as top contender

By urging the Congress high command to name the Chief Ministerial candidate for the forthcoming Assembly elections, Punjab Chief Minister, Charanjit Singh Channi, appears to be testing the waters.
He is aware that Pradesh party chief, Navjot Singh Sidhu has been putting pressure on the central leadership to declare him (Sidhu) as the potential candidate for the top post. However, knowing that it would be very difficult for the Gandhis to overlook his (Channi’s) claim, Channi wants to force the issue ahead of the voting.
His logic is that whenever the Congress has not come out and announced the name of its Chief Ministerial nominee, it has always lost and the reason for the party winning in 2017 was because Captain Amarinder Singh was declared as the CM face even if with great reluctance.
What is working out in Channi’s favour is that Sidhu by making irresponsible statements has been repeatedly attacking the high command since he has not been able to get what he wants. Recently the former cricketer told a media person that it would be people of Punjab who would elect the MLAs and thus the Chief Minister implying that the high command would have no role in the exercise.
Any Congressman familiar with how the grand old party functions, would know that such a comment would never be taken kindly by the leadership which thrives because of its overriding say in this matter. Therefore, if Sidhu remains adamant, he would more or less rule himself out of the reckoning.
Ever since the reorganization of Punjab, which resulted in the creation of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh in 1966, barring Giani Zail Singh who was a Ramgarhia (carpenter community) and now Channi (a Dalit), every Chief Minister of the state has been a Jat Sikh. However, a strange situation exists today as no Jat Sikh leader has emerged in the post Parkash Singh Badal and Amarinder Singh era.
Within the Shiromani Akali Dal, which was essentially a party of Jat Sikhs, with deep roots in the rural areas, the Badals have virtually eliminated all their rivals from the political equation to make the transition for Sukhbir Singh Badal, smooth. However, the 13-month long Kisan agitation has left its impact on the overall situation and the Akalis, who were partners of the Central government till very recently, are finding it difficult to retrieve their support base.
The end result is that for the first time they are not the principal party of the state and are unlikely to make an impactful dent unless the post poll scenario creates a situation which would entail a role for them. The political meaning of this is that Sukhbir Badal is unlikely to be the CM anytime soon.
Similarly, in the Congress, after the exit of Captain Amarinder Singh, there are several Jat Sikh leaders such as Sidhu, Partap Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Manpreet Singh Badal, who would want to be amongst the claimants of an overall leadership role. Other than them, Jat Sikh leaders, like Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon (SAD) and Ravneet Singh Bittu (Congress) may also be nursing latent ambitions.
In this uncertain scenario, the Jat Sikhs would like to prevent Sidhu or anyone from amongst them to acquire a stature which would provide the advantage to the person who surges ahead in the race of the next generation of Jat Sikh leaders. For most of them, Channi’s continuation would be more acceptable rather than any of them bagging the coveted position in the current context.
Channi, who has surprised everyone by his astute, perceptive and realistic approach to politics, realises that this was the right moment for him to stake his claim without making it sound so obvious. The attack on him by four Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states, with one of them demanding his arrest for the breach of security during the PM’s visit to Bhatinda and onwards, would perhaps force the high command to come to his defence.
This would effectively mean that the Gandhis may throw their weight behind him and in the event of the Congress winning, make him the Chief Minister once again. The BJP also knows that Channi would be a formidable opponent to displace. Thus it has commenced a tirade against him, holding him directly responsible for the security breach, which is now being probed by a retired Judge of the Supreme Court.
Channi has been conducting himself with much maturity and has countered the orchestrated BJP propaganda against him by reiterating that the Prime Minister was the head of the Central government, and if his life would have been endangered, he would have sacrificed his own self to ensure that no bodily harm to him could have taken place.
The narrative that Channi is building is that of Punjabi pride and the more the BJP trains its guns on him, it would become a central and emotional issue of the elections. The opinion polls may have placed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ahead of every other political outfit, but the message that has gone down is that if his nominees were victorious, Arvind Kejriwal would remain the prima donna and not permit anyone from his party to have the final say in Punjab matters.
Channi is playing his cards well and is even utilising channels and anchors known for their close proximity to the BJP to get his message across. Between us.