The Congress appears to have lost the plot even before the battle for the next Assembly polls in Punjab has commenced. The exercise for reconstituting the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) has proved counter-productive, with the high command ending up retaining those it sought to replace, while not achieving its objective by nominating some who are evidently disappointed.
The result is that Amarinder Singh Raja Warring as the PCC president and Partap Singh Bajwa as the Leader of Opposition shall continue in their respective positions. Supporters of Charanjit Singh Channi, former Chief Minister, who has been made chairman of the campaign committee, held a meeting at his house on Friday, to express their dissatisfaction, and have urged the top leadership to review its decision.
In addition, Manish Tewari, senior leader and currently the Chandigarh Lok Sabha MP, has expressed surprise on why he has been excluded from the elaborate list declared by the party. In its defence, the high command has stated that Chandigarh had its own party structure, and therefore he did not qualify to be in the Punjab list.
What the high command is missing is that Manish Tewari has been a Lok Sabha MP from both Ludhiana and Anandpur Saheb, and is perhaps the only leader in the party, other than Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, who has been elected from three different places.
He is a Brahmin and a prominent Hindu face in the state, which has a sizeable Hindu population. Manish has served as president of the party’s student and youth wings and is well versed with internal affairs. His late father had been a victim of terrorism, and was killed by militants in the early 1980s when Punjab was in grip of violence.
The high command appears to be oblivious of the fact that there are 23 out of 117 seats in the Assembly where Hindus are a dominant force. If Captain Amarinder Singh and the party could not return to power in 2007 and 2012, it was largely because the BJP, which had an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal at that point of time, had won majority of these constituencies, enabling Parkash Singh Badal to be the CM, both times.
The BJP could have consolidated its position, had it demanded the Deputy Chief Ministership, but Arun Jaitley, who had a major say on Punjab affairs, for reasons best known to him, suggested that the Akalis should get a free hand. It was his insistence to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha seat from Amritsar, that led to the exit of Navjot Singh Sidhu, flamboyant cricketer and three-time MP from the city, to leave the saffron brigade.
Sidhu, who subsequently joined the Congress and was viewed by many as the person who would succeed Captain Amarinder Singh, has kept away from active politics after being denied the top position. His tantrums had led to the widening of rift within the Congress, and after Amarinder’s unceremonious exit ahead of the 2022 polls, he has been on the sidelines of Punjab politics since the high command chose to bring in Channi.
The faction ridden Congress lost badly in the polls, enabling the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to secure an impressive victory. The AAP is well placed despite defections of some leaders to the BJP, and would now start as a clear favourite to once again win in the Assembly polls. The Congress, which could have posed as a formidable challenger, would now have to first get out of its factionalism in order to be in the fight.
The BJP, which has attracted a large number of Congress leaders in its ranks, has a tough task, if it has to make its mark without being in alliance with anyone. However, it shall be happy if the Congress loses the polls since it considers the grand old party as its main rival nationally. Nevertheless, there are backdoor efforts being made to somehow forge an understanding with the Akali Dal, where Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is attempting to rebuild the party, is vehemently opposed to the idea.
The Congress could have avoided its split in the state following Amarinder’s removal, had Ambika Soni accepted to become the CM briefly. It is clueless about what it should now be doing. Soni had declined the post on the plea that in Punjab, only a Sikh should be made CM, and thus facilitated the entry of Channi, a Dalit face in the big league. The party lost and Channi withdrew himself from active politics for a short while, following recovery of big amount of cash from one of his close associates.
The problem before the Congress is that it has not been able to make up its mind on who should be projected as the CM. There is a demand that a Jat Sikh of some standing could bring political dividends. But even out of Jat Sikhs, the party has to make up its mind on who to choose amongst Bajwa, Raja Warring, Sidhu, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Sukhpal Khaira and Rana Gurjeet Singh.
There is a strong section which also wants Channi, since the Dalits are the largest segment in the state. The top leadership of the party is evidently misreading the situation, and its exercise while undermining the position of those who it sought to replace, has added to the confusion.
The party needs to immediately bring in a new in-charge of the state and review its list. Otherwise, Congress should be prepared to gift Punjab to AAP once again. Between Us.
