Punjab polls: Weighed down by factionalism, Congress facing stiff challenge

Big guns like Punjab unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, Sunil Jakhar, deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa have not been seen at the forefront of the campaign in Punjab so far

Chandigarh : Blame it on competing ambitions, turf wars or the inability of the party leadership to put its house in order. The biggest problem the Congress, which has been fancying its chances of retaining power, is facing in Punjab today is the war within the state unit.

The biggest problem the Congress, which has been fancying its chances of retaining power, is facing in Punjab today is the war within the state unit.

The party has made a tactical shift in its original strategy of going into the polls under a “collective leadership” by declaring incumbent chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi as its CM candidate with an eye on the 32% Scheduled Caste (SC) votes in the state. The calculation behind the gambit was that Channi, the first Dalit chief minister of Punjab, will coalesce a big section of SC voters, who are spread among 39 castes and, therefore, not a homogenous lot, behind the party and tilt the scales in its favour in the face of a stiff challenge from a resurgent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party (SAD-BSP) combine.

Channi, who switched gears immediately after his name was declared, has been crisscrossing the state with gusto to galvanize the cadres and shore up the prospects, but the party is being weighed down by divisions in its ranks in the state. The campaign has not been able to gather the momentum needed at this late stage due to lack of cohesion in the state unit.

Big guns like state unit president Navjot Singh Sidhu, campaign committee chairman Sunil Jakhar, deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who were among the frontrunners to replace Capt Amarinder Singh as the chief minister in September last year before the party settled for Channi, have not been seen at the forefront of the campaign so far.

Sidhu, whose crowd-pulling power and famed oratorical skills are acknowledged by even his detractors, was also in the race to become the CM face. The cricketer-turned-politician is caught up in his Amritsar East constituency where he is being given a tough fight by his bête noire and former Akali minister Bikram Singh Majithia. Sidhu attended some of the rallies of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, but his refusal to address the latter’s rally in Dhuri has been seen in party circles as another sign of discord in the party. Similarly, Randhawa is spending most of his time in his constituency.

The Congress leadership has not been able to stanch the flow of negative either. Not only half-a-dozen rebel candidates, including the chief minister’s brother and cabinet minister’s son, who are in the fray as Independents and giving a hard time to Congress candidates, several discontented leaders have left the party. Former Union law minister Ashwani Kumar, who remained associated with the party for 46 years, was the latest to quit the Congress on Tuesday. Kumar resigned from the party, saying it has “lost touch with ground reality”. Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari, while terming the senior leader’s resignation as “unfortunate”, told a channel: “We should be concerned. When such people leave, the party does suffer”.

There are also other leaders, including MPs, who are keeping distance or targeting the leadership. Patiala MP Preneet Kaur is campaigning for her husband Capt Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress and its alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while Khadoor Sahib MP Jasbir Singh Dimpa, whose brother Harpinder Singh Gill ‘Rajan’ recently switched loyalties to the SAD, has blamed Punjab affairs in-charge Harish Chaudhary for the mess in the state party. Rajya Sabha member and SC leader Shamsher Dullo, too, has hit out at Chaudhary and Channi, demanding a probe into ticket distribution.

Guru Nanak Dev University’s former head of political science department Professor Jagrup Singh Sekhon said the party was slipping in the perception game. “There is free-for-all in the party. They (party leaders) are all pulling each other down. The organisational structure in the state seems to be non-functional and weak,” he said.

Another worry for the Congress is the anti-incumbency against several of its sitting MLAs who were given tickets by the party leadership to avoid poaching by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally Capt Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress (PLC). Of the 80 MLAs, only 12 got replaced and others were again fielded amid differences of opinion among the state leaders which also delayed the announcement of candidates.

However, the party is counting on Channi, whose populist and welfare decisions during the 111-day stint and accessibility are being showcased as the trailer of five-year tenure, to overcome the challenge. “There is no denying that we have a lot of issues, but Channi is our trump card. The response to him has been positive. If this gambit works, there is no stopping us,” says a cabinet minister who was in favour of declaring him the CM face of the party.