Chandigarh: Punjab Congress affairs in-charge and former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat’s subtle hint that Navjot Singh Sidhu is being elevated to the Punjab Congress chief’s post ahead of assembly elections next year has boiled tension within the party yet again.
Rawat had in a televised interview on Thursday morning indicated that a peaceful solution is being worked out where Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh will continue to head the government while Sidhu will be made the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president. The formal announcement is likely in a day or two, he added.
Rawat later stated that his statement was taken out of context but conceded that the solution is being worked out on ‘something around’ this only.
But it was enough to trigger a spiral reaction in the power corridors of Punjab.
Captain Amarinder huddled with his supporters, including MLAs and MPs, at his farmhouse near Chandigarh late on Thursday night, in what is seen as his apparent move to flex his muscle and indirectly tell the high command that he is not happy with Sidhu’s elevation, which he has opposed since the beginning.
Then came a new revelation from the Amarinder camp, that he has threatened to resign in case Sidhu is made party chief, a decision that appears to have the backing of the Gandhi siblings Priyanka and Rahul, who both think Sidhu is a huge asset and the next leader who will help the party sail to victory in Punjab, a win that the Gandhis desperately need after a string of losses.
Later, Captain’s media advisor Raveen Thakural denied media reports that Amarinder would resign. He has neither quit nor offered to do so.
But Thakural’s next phrase that Captain will lead the Punjab Congress to victory in the 2022 polls, as he did in 2017, reinforced the fact that Amarinder is in no mood to step aside for Sidhu.
Sidhu too held closed-door meetings with people close to him, where leaders who were once Captain’s loyalists but now support Sidhu were present. Hectic parleys, which were officially called routine meetings, remained active until midnight on Thursday and even later, giving a clear signal that the war within the Punjab Congress is far from over.
Will Sidhu’s elevation resolve the crisis?
Sidhu has been attacking Amarinder’s apparent lack of leadership for the past several months. The flashpoint in their souring relationship was the single bench order of the Punjab and Haryana high court that trashed the Congress government’s probe into the sacrilege case.
This gave Sidhu the opportunity to target Amarinder’s weak leadership and also for ‘lenience’ in checking corruption, whether through unabated indulgence and sale of drugs in Punjab, open corruption in sand mining or the ‘faulty’ liquor policy which he said caused hundreds of crores of losses to the state exchequer.
The tremors of his statement that two families are taking advantage in Punjab (one is the Badals and the other is Amarinder) was felt in Delhi as well, bringing more embarrassment for Captain and the party.
The question is if his elevation will end the crisis in the party.
Political analyst Ashutosh Kumar said that if the party thinks that by elevating Sidhu the crisis will be resolved, it is living in a fool’s paradise. Thursday’s events made it clear that no one is interested in peace.
He said even the party knows that it will only escalate the tension between both the leaders in the run up to the election, since Sidhu’s elevation will make him a likely candidate to replace Amarinder in case the party emerges victorious in 2022.
Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Credit: PTI/Files
Sidhu as we know him, will aggressively put pressure on Amarinder on a host of issues he raised and he will continue to raise them in order to project his image as a crusader of Punjab rights. “Do you think Amarinder will stay silent and take orders from a person who joined the party barely four years ago?” asked Ashutosh.
He added that during the election, daggers will be drawn on the issue of ticket distributions, rallies and campaign planning, and a host of other issues. Normally, the CM and party president work in harmony, which will not work when both don’t meet eye to eye, said Ashutosh, also a professor of political science at Panjab University.
But there is another section that believes that Sidhu is Congress’s best bet in the given scenario.
Political analyst Harjeshwar Pal Singh stated that Amarinder is a spent force now. His popularity has nosedived, especially during the current term, where his performance apparently fell short. Sidhu is the party’s best bet right now, given that he has an honest image, and he is more popular than Amarinder across Punjab.
It was not easy to replace Amarinder a few years ago, but now there is a possibility. There are various polls that suggest that the party has a better chance to win the election if Sidhu is in a commanding position. With Sidhu as party chief, if Amarinder sulks, it will make things difficult for him.
Harjeshwar, however, agreed that Sidhu’s elevation to the top party post will definitely create a dilemma as the Congress might not be in a position to declare its CM candidate. But it will not affect voters’ minds if the public is under the impression that Sidhu is the one calling the shots.
Moreover, the MLAs too need Sidhu to win elections in their constituencies, given that there are serious performance issues within the Congress government. A change in face is always good to keep anti-incumbency sentiments at bay and this is what the high command is trying to do, said Harjeshwar.
He, however, believed that Sidhu needs to correct his course once he becomes the party chief. He needs to be totally accessible to people 24×7 and try to unite all the factions. He also cannot continue to criticise the government any longer as the head of the party. Whether he does this remains to be seen.
Punjab politics, he believed, is at an interesting turn of events, with the old guard being replaced, a generational shift that the Congress needs more than ever.
