Punjab leaders baffled; party does damage control
Punjab Congress affairs in-charge Harish Rawat created a flutter within party circles on Monday morning, hours before the new Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s swearing-in ceremony, by asserting that the State Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu would be the party’s face for the 2022 elections.
Rawat’s statement, that the party would be fighting the forthcoming Assembly polls under Sidhu, failed to go down well with several Congress leaders, with many coming out in the open to question the timing and intention for the same.
By evening, the party did damage-control by maintaining that both Channi and Sidhu would be the party’s face for the polls next year.
The Congress’ senior leader and former State party chief Sunil Jakhar, who was among the frontrunners for the Chief Minister’s post, took exception to Rawat’s “baffling” remarks saying that the same could potentially erode the new Chief Minister’s authority.
“On the swearing-in day of @Charnjit_Channi as Chief Minister, Mr Rawat’s statement that ‘elections will be fought under Sidhu’, is baffling. It’s likely to undermine the CM’s authority and also negate the very ‘raison d’être’ of his selection for this position,” tweeted Jakhar.
“I am sure Rahul Gandhi has taken cognizance of the statement. There is a CM so how can there be another CM face?” said Jakhar.
At the same time, Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa also requested the party leaders to “keep views to ourselves”, while concentrating on the issues that need to be and should be resolved.
“I will request all to let’s keep our views to ourselves...We should work hard and bring our party’s Government in 2022...Channi ji has also assured to resolve all the issues, including sacrilege and Bargari cases, and also drugs...There is a need to focus on resolving these issues...we have to resolve these,” said Bajwa.
Notably, the All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of Punjab, Rawat had told a TV news channel that Sidhu would be the next Chief Minister if the Congress came to power in the State in 2022.
The statement assumes significance as the Congress Party, after over 24-hour-long hectic parleys, has appointed a Dalit Sikh leader Channi as the Chief Minister of a State with the highest density of Scheduled Caste (SC) population — close to 32 per cent which is highest in the country.
Channi, whose name was never in the reckoning, emerged winner in the last leg of the race. At one point of time, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa (Jat Sikh leader) was pipped to be the next Chief Minister, with his supporters and party colleagues sending out congratulatory messages in the social media. Sidhu was also staking his claims for the post asserting that in case the party wanted to appoint a Jat Sikh, it should be him.
“Making such a statement, ahead of elections, is wrong...The Congress never announces its chief ministerial candidate. It was done in 2017 only when Captain Amarinder’s name was announced by Rahul Gandhi...By saying that Sidhu would be the next CM, the party has undermined Channi...This shows that Channi’s appointment was merely to woo Dalit voters and nothing else,” said a Congress MLA, who did not wish to be named.
Later in the day, the party’s national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala issued a clarification asserting that both Channi and Sidhu will serve as the party’s face in the 2022 Assembly polls.
“Charanjit Singh Channi is our CM. Navjot Singh Sidhu is our Pradesh Congress Committee chief. Both will be our faces,” Surjewala said, maintaining that he had spoken to Rawat about the issue, who claimed that his statement was misinterpreted.
“I just spoke to Harish Rawat ji minutes ago. Many friends are misreading his statement. Our face will be Channi and Sidhu both, and the ordinary Congress workers and leaders who will be supporting them. If anyone says one or the other will be the face intentionally or otherwise, it is a misinterpretation,” he said.