A general idea in the Punjab Congress is that it was Channi’s masterstroke to get rid of Sidhu by making certain appointments unpalatable to him

The resignation of Navjot Singh Sidhu from the post of Punjab Congress President was perhaps the culmination of an eventful month where all political developments took place in the fast forward mode, triggering not only surprise but also a sense of unscripted political discourse.

“Khela Hobe” was the curt two-line reply of a senior Congress leader when asked about the latest developments in Punjab. The two words have become the standard vocabulary of politicians ever since Mamata Banerjee made a spectacular comeback in West Bengal despite the odds.

Of course, the game is on-of one-upmanship, political ambitions, fragile egos and what not. No one for sure knows what turn the political developments will take given the uncertainty on the ground which has affected not only the Congress workers and middle-level leaders but also the top echelons of party leadership in the State.

“Khela Hobe” now characterises Punjab more than West Bengal as the resignation of Sidhu has plunged the party into a crisis even as the newly installed Charanjit Singh Channi government was getting ready to fix things up and tidy up the loose ends of governance before the model code of conduct set in the State by the end of January 2022.

As Punjab is in a political tailspin following the two resignations — first by Captain Amarinder Singh as Chief Minister and then Sidhu — many in the Congress are saying that the grand old party is on a self-destruct mode and is deliberately sitting on the branch which is going to be axed. A gleeful Captain Amarinder, who was arm-twisted to resign due to intense lobbying of Sidhu with the Gandhi siblings, said, “I told you so…he is not a stable man and not fit for the border state of Punjab.”

So, what happens now in the State where elections are five months away? Before answering this, let us first come back to the forced resignation of Captain Amarinder. It was widely felt in the State Congress circles to be a “good move” and “good riddance” as the Maharaja of Patiala had lost touch with the ground realities, grassroots politics and the people. He was running the state with his loyal bureaucrats, unmindful of the fact that he was a Congress chief minister and there were MLAs, ministers and party functionaries around who needed attention.

For Congress, nothing could have been better at the end of an unimpressive four-and-a-half years of his regime than to remove him to beat the massive anti-incumbency that was already building up. Aam Aadmi Partywas catching up with its image of being a street fighter and even though the Shiromani Akali Dal had a lot of ground to cover, its leaders were hopeful that with Captain Amarinder at the helm, it had a fighting chance. Remember, Punjab has never repeated a government for the last almost five decades, except in 2012 when the Akali Dal returned to power again. So, Amarinder never really had a chance to lead the party to victory.

On the face of it, making Charanjit Singh Channi the chief minister was a game changer-a move which has the potential to yield political dividends. While SAD, AAP and BJP were promising and talking of making a Dalit Deputy Chief Minister post-2022 elections in a state where they count for over 32 per cent of the population, Congress did it with the stroke of a pen. It also was aimed at taking the message across the political spectrum, in several other poll-bound states like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, that Congress meant business in empowering this section. 

Has Congress lost all the gains it made by appointing Channi after the dramatic and unexpected resignation of Sidhu? Loyal Congress workers are emphatic, “not really”. As Congress ministers, accompanied by Channi, took control of their departments after being sworn in, there was a sense that it was Channi’s “masterstroke” to get “rid” of Sidhu by making certain appointments unpalatable to him.

It is widely understood that there were sharp differences of opinion between Sidhu and Channi on the Cabinet berths, so much so in the end Channi alone went to New Delhi to get the list approved by the high command.

Sidhu apparently saw this as the assertion of Channi and perhaps felt that the chief minister had a sharp political mind of his own, was here to stay and not merely as a rubber stamp and he could not act as a “Super CM” as he intended.  Of course, the new Cabinet has controversial faces and is not without blemishes but in the game of political one-upmanship, Channi had his say.

As Sidhu is looking at the chief ministerial chair post-Congress victory in the 2022 Assembly polls, appointments in the Cabinet, particularly of Home Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, was not to his liking.  At one point, Randhawa, also a Jat Sikh like Sidhu, was in the race to become chief minister but due to fierce opposition by Sidhu, he lost the race and Channi was appointed. Now that Randhawa has the all-important Home portfolio and is also a Deputy CM, Sidhu apparently feels that he could come in his way of becoming a chief minister if Congress wins and forms the next government. Giving importance to Randhawa despite Sidhu’s opposition was of course a master stroke of Channi to needle Sidhu and sideline him in the decision making.

Also, in the last few days since Channi took over, he deliberately built an image of “people’s Chief Minister” by performing Bhangra on stage in a public function, giving shagun to married couples on the road, stopping at roadsides and enquiring about the problems of people, shunning security, etc. Many in Punjab feel that if Channi’s image gets consolidated in the next few weeks, the Dalits vote en masse for Congress and the party wins, it would be almost impossible to change him and bring in Sidhu.

Realising the fast-changing political developments, “resignation” was the only possible weapon left for Sidhu to use to extract his pound of flesh. But what exactly will he ask for now, only Sidhu knows.

Those who have watched Sidhu’s political trajectory over the years say the resignation in 72 days of being appointed as PCC chief could mean that he might be looking for political alternatives in the state and given the state of Punjab politics at present, it could be AAP. Sidhu started with BJP in 2004 from Amritsar Lok Sabha and within 10 years in 2014, his relations with the saffron party soured when his “political guru” Arun Jaitley was fielded from Amritsar. Soon after, he joined Congress and built up a good rapport with the Gandhi siblings-Rahul and Priyanka.

If Sidhu stays put and refuses to take back his resignation, it will also be a big setback to Rahul and Priyanka who almost went by the script written by the cricketer-turned-politician for the removal of Captain Amarinder in their bid to write a new chapter of assertion of Congress high command. If Sidhu could fail his political guru Arun Jaitley, he can as well fail his friends in the grand old Congress party. He has done that.

(The writer is Senior Resident Editor, The Pioneer, Chandigarh. The views expressed are personal.)