Congress could adjust both Channi and Sidhu later while immediately announcing chief ministerial face
Congress leadership
weighing option of accommodating both Channi and Sidhu
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
As Punjab
Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu today again left nothing to imagination
so far as his ambition is concerned, the party leadership is learnt to be
weighing the option of adjusting him too along with Chief Minister Charanjit
Singh Channi while announcing the chief ministerial face on February 6.
The
announcement is to be made by Rahul Gandhi at a virtual rally at Ludhiana to
connect with the Congress rank and file at the grassroots.
Going by the
indication available, based upon the survey, the party is likely to go ahead
with Channi as the chief ministerial face. However, at the same time, Sidhu could
be conveyed that in case of the party retaining power, Channi could be the
chief minister for half the term with the other term going to him. This arrangement won't be made public at this stage.
Sidhu, in a
veiled attack today morning, gave vent to his feeling that the party leadership
favoured a weak person as the chief minister who could be dictated from above.
It is clear
that although he publicly stated at Jalandhar in the presence of Rahul Gandhi
that he would abide by every decision on this sensitive issue, it is evident
that it might not be easy for him.
But then the
basic issue is that of the Congress producing a miracle by retaining power or
by emerging as at least the single largest party.
It is a
different kind of election in Punjab this time as the electoral space is
overcrowded and the people now can’t complain of lack of choice. Earlier,
Punjab represented wheat-paddy rotation in electoral dynamics too as before
2017, the choice used to be limited between the Congress and the Shiromani Akali
Dal. Now there are five formations
competing to ‘serve’ the people.
Almost every
formation is making almost similar offers to the people. Navjot Singh Sidhu is
a little bit different as he has been marketing his ‘Punjab Model’.
The impact
of the farm struggle is evident at some level as the people are now questioning
the candidates. One of the major contributions of the agrarian struggle is the
accountability dimension. Even some ministers have been questioned by the
electorates on the promises they had made in 2017 elections but subsequently
forgotten. However, this phenomenon is yet to take off to make discernible impact
on the scene.
The tragedy
in Punjab is that almost the same issues are being revisited that were at the core in 2017
but with the difference that it is the Congress now that is under attack for
non-performance. The move of the Congress leadership to blunt strong anti-incumbency
by replacing Capt. Amarinder Singh by Charanjit Singh Channi has failed to
produce the desired results mainly because of the continuing factionalism
rooted in bloated ego of some leaders.
Sidhu himself
is now engaged in a pitched battle in his own constituency of Amritsar East
where confronting him is Akali Dal strongman Bikram Singh Majithia who
otherwise faces case under the NDPS Act and has been provided relief by the
Supreme Court for the time being, apparently to enable him to fight the election.
Channi too
is caught in a controversy with his nephew having been arrested today by the
Enforcement Directorate from whose residence about Rs. 10 cr in cash was
recovered recently.
Both of them
can take refuge in the argument of political vendetta.
Of course,
the present government in Delhi has been under attack for using agencies like
the ED and the CBI as political tool against opposition parties close to the
elections.
Punjab is
the state where the stakes for the Congress in general and Rahul Gandhi in
particular are high. It is for this reason too that the BJP is going all out here
despite the fact that it is not in a position to get even double digit.
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