Intriguing as to how how chief minister would be elected directly by people in Punjab going by Navjot Sidhu

 

Navjot Sidhu’s  narrative of Punjab electing chief minister directly is interesting and intriguing

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

 

Punjab electoral race is turning hilarious.

It is being heard for the first time that the people of Punjab would elect a chief minister directly.

Advocating this line is cricketer and half-satirist  turned full time politician who now heads the Congress in Punjab Navjot Singh Sidhu who yesterday went to the extent of making the assertion that the central leadership of the Congress had no business to finalise this choice. The merits of his so called ‘Punjab Model’ is a different issue.

Punjab has of late turned into comedy circus.

The Aam Aadmi Party chief Bhagwant Mann is a satirist by profession with a mass following and he too has been aspiring for the top job in case his party crosses the threshold.

AAP today again promised a chief ministerial face next week who, it was claimed, would turn the terms of electoral game. This can be interpreted as putting cold waters on Mann’s aspiration. The party had promised a Sikh face at the time of launching of the election campaign.

The situation in case of the Shiromani Akali Dal is different as on the face of it, the unchallenged leader for chief ministership is Sukhbir Singh Badal who seems to be turning more serious of late from his earlier style of regaling the people with his commentary. This is the only party about which there is nothing in doubt and the line of command is absolutely clear and unquestionable.

 It is the race in the Congress for the command post that is the most gripping, more so in the context of new terms for the game being proposed one of the competitors.

The Congress leadership had brought in Charanjit Singh Channi from the scheduled caste sections as replacement for Capt Amarinder Singh to blunt strong anti-incumbency rooted in his non-performance.

Also in the race at that time was Navjot Singh Sidhu but the situation did not favour him.

Low profile Channi might have been perceived as a stop gap arrangement by other aspirants in the state but he proved them wrong with his accessibility. He seems to have now turned indispensable in the context of perceived consolidation of scheduled caste sections that constitute 32 per cent of the population in the state.

He has succeeded in convincing the people that he is one of them and this dimension has found acceptance among the people. However, he has not made any direct claim so far except talking in oblique terms.

Arrogance is the worst enemy of a political leader.

The only leader who has left nothing in doubt and in the process has also raised apprehensions is Sidhu who talks of people electing the chief minister directly.

But then the election system in India is not presidential under which the people elect a leader directly.

The people elect the MLAs who elect their leader.

It is on this account that  what Sidhu is saying in incomprehensible.

Of course, many of the parties announce the chief ministerial face as the Congress had given the command to Capt Amarinder Singh in 2017. AAP was faceless at that time too.

It has always been known in Akali Dal as to who would be the chief minister.

The Sanyukt Samaj Morcha that has added yet another dimension to the electoral battle has a chief ministerial face in its chief Balbir Singh Rajewal who was earlier negotiating with AAP. SSM is the wild card in this highly competitive game making the situation all the more unpredictable.

The BJP that is in alliance with Punjab Lok Congress of Capt Amarinder Singh and Akali faction led by Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa is already suffering from self-inflicted injuries following remark by Prime Minister Narinder Modi that he ‘escaped’ from Punjab thereby portraying the state as the wild one. The Supreme Court has appointed committee to probe the security lapse during his January 5 visit to Ferozepur where he could not reach and turned back due to a road blockade. The fact of the matter is that the people just did not tun up to listen to Modi and the chairs remained vacant.

It is the Congress that is providing the comic relief at the moment.