ED raids: Punjab polls can set the trend for 2024 Lok Sabha polls and hence February 2022 Assembly election is more crucial

 

Punjab February 2022 key to 2024 Lok Sabha election and Modi knows it better than Congress

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

 

It is too well known even to ordinary voter in Punjab that the Bharatiya Janata Party led alliance can’t form the government here but it is still going ahead full steam. There has to be some deeper motive.

The BJP in Punjab has been riding piggy back since 1997 in this state when it joined hands with the Shiromani Akali Dal although it differed with that party on almost every key issue that had dominated the political discourse for about two decades by that time. The Akali Dal had taken the initiative by extending unconditional support to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government that lasted just for 13 days but laid the foundation for this alliance.

Shiromani Akali Dal walked out the alliance after the three contentious farm bills were passes that now stand abrogated under pressure from the massive and unprecedented farm struggle led by Punjab.

Punjab of February 2022 has the potential to dictate at one level the 2024 Lok Sabha election and the person who knows it better than the Congress leadership seems to be Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This could be the reason for the BJP to resorting to every tactic to cow down the Congress that is already faction ridden with the top leaders in Punjab battling over as to who would be the next chief minister and thereby hurting the party badly.

Punjab is the state that in 2017 put confidence in the Congress with a massive mandate despite the baggage of army attack on the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in June 1984 and the Sikh genocide for three days in Delhi and several other places following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh security guards. They had killed her  to avenge Operation Bluestar.

Punjab is the state in the north that stopped the Modi juggernaut in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Punjab is the state from where Modi returned earlier this month without addressing a rally although the reason given out was the security lapse as the highway to Ferozepur from Bathinda on which he was travelling had been blocked by the farmers who too were headed for Ferozepur to join protest against him.

But the chairs in the pandal were empty as the BJP had failed to mobilise even a few thousand people to listen to the Prime Minister.

The security lapse is being probed by the Supreme Court constituted team.

While returning to Delhi before boarding the plane at Bathinda, Modi told officials to convey Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi that he was returning safely. His comment was highly loaded castigating Punjab as unsafe state.

Channi rebutted him strongly with his remark of 70,000 chairs versus 700 people to listen to him.

That is one importance of Punjab.

Yet a highly significant dimension of the February Assembly polls in this state is in case the Congress somehow manages to emerge as the single largest party, it could establish the leadership of Rahul Gandhi who is now de facto incharge of the party after submitting his resignation from the presidency.

Rahul Gandhi is already confronting Modi and the divisive agenda of the BJP besides attacking the performance of this government sharply.

Congress, despite having lost space in almost every state, still retains the character of all India party and its base can be revived by charismatic leadership, even if that leadership is repackaged Rahul Gandhi.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has of late been trying to cobble up a joint front but her TMC too had earlier tied up with the BJP. Strong united opposition to BJP is not possible without the Congress but for that, this party would have to rejuvenate itself. Punjab could provide the elixir.

The raids by the Enforcement Directorate on Channi’s relatives and seizure of cash close to the election has a context.

It is a different matter that the ruling class stinks with corruption, not only in Punjab but almost in every state.

ED had carried out raids in West Bengal too before the election but Mamata Banerjee hit back at the political level by defeating the BJP.

Corruption must be eradicated from the system but the ED and CBI should not be used as political weapon by the ruling party at the centre.

The situation calls for fundamental changes in the system to make it more democratic and transparent by shifting from the colonial era governance system.

The Congress has approached the Election Commission on this issue recalling a 2019 verdict on ED raids close to the elections.

The warring Congress leaders in Punjab are already working hard for the defeat of the party thereby helping the BJP agenda by default.

The target in Punjab is not just Channi but Rahul Gandhi.

AAP  that has the art of creating hype is  fearing the farmer factor.

The other main contender in the race is the Shiromani Akali Dal that is already campaigning intensively.