Former Punjab chief minister and Jalandhar MP Charanjit Singh Channi has blown the bugle of rebellion against the party high command. Channi is upset that he was not handed over the command of the party ahead of the crucial Punjab assembly elections. Although the party high command has appointed him chairman of the campaign committee, he does not appear to be happy. On Friday, he convened a meeting of senior and prominent Congress leaders at his house to send across the message of defiance that may turn into rebellion.
Besides several former ministers, 67 former MLAs and those who contested the assembly elections attended the meeting. A senior party leader who attended the meeting told News Arena India that the purpose was to convey to the high command that they were not prepared to work under the leadership of incumbent president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring. All of them are favouring Channi to lead the election campaign, as also declaring him the chief ministerial candidate.
In all likelihood, the Congress high command will not succumb to the pressure. More so, when the rebels are clearly suggesting that they have alternate options available. While a significant section of the senior leadership did attend the meeting at Channi’s behest, it is not certain that they will go to the extreme of deserting the party.
Channi belongs to the Dalit Sikh community. Dalits constitute about 32 per cent of Punjab’s population. But, the Dalits are not a homogenous community in Punjab. They are divided between various sub-castes like Ravidasias, Ramdasias, Adhi Dharmi, Mazhabi Sikhs, Valmikis etc. Although they do not have a uniform voting pattern, yet most of them have traditionally been Congress supporters. At one time, when the Bahujan Samaj Party was at its peak, a significant number of Dalits rallied around it. The BSP still has some strong pockets of support. Founder of the BSP Kanshi Ram was also from Punjab and belonged to the Ramdasia community.
Having been former chief minister, Channi has positioned himself as a prominent Dalit leader of the Congress at the national level. Besides, Rahul Gandhi’s penchant for promoting and projecting the Dalit leadership as part of his broader campaign has given him added reasons to get more robust, aggressive and demanding.
But Channi comes with certain limitations. A first generation politician, he was first elected to Punjab assembly in 2007 as an independent candidate after having been denied ticket by the Congress. He later joined the Akali Dal. But before the 2012 assembly elections, he returned to the Congress. While the Congress lost the 2012 elections, he won from Chamkaur Sahib. First the Congress appointed Sunil Jakhar as Congress Legislature Party leader. Later, Channi was appointed the CLP leader apparently with an aim to accommodate a Dalit leader.
Fast forward to 2021 when the Congress unceremoniously removed Capt Amarinder Singh as the chief minister. Sunil Jakhar was the choice of majority of the Congress legislators then. Since the high command wanted that only a Jatt Sikh should be the Punjab chief minister, the choice fell on Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. Channi was trying hard to be appointed one of the deputy chief ministers as the party had worked out a formula that while the chief minister will be a Jatt Sikh, a Hindu and a Dalit each will be made deputy chief ministers.
The story goes that Channi accompanied Randhawa to a Chandigarh hotel where then Congress in-charge Harish Rawat was staying. Channi was desperately lobbying for one of the two deputy chief minister’s positions. To his utter shock he was told by Rawat, “you are going to be the Chief minister and not the deputy chief minister.”
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As the Congress realised later, the experiment did not succeed. Under Channi’s leadership, the Congress was completely routed, coming down to mere 20 seats from 77 it had won in the previous 2017 assembly elections. One of the reasons widely acknowledged is that the dominant Jatt Sikh community did not approve of and accept his leadership.
Another major reason for the 2022 debacle, the party high command later realised, was not replacing Channi after the Enforcement Directorate seized Rs 8 crore cash from the residence of his nephew Bhupinder Singh Honey, just about a month before the 2022 assembly elections. The trial is still going on in this case.
This is another important reason for the party high command not taking any chances with Channi. This issue is for sure to get raked up in the elections and it will be difficult for the party to defend it. Since there was on the spot seizure of such a huge amount, the party cannot even claim it to be vendetta.
Under these circumstances it was obvious that the party did not want to take any chances with him, although he had emerged as a prominent Dalit face of the Congress.
Over a period of about three decades in politics, Channi has turned out to be a shrewd politician. He knows his strengths and weaknesses. Right now he is trying to leverage his strength of being a Dalit leader, to use it in future if and when he needs to use it.
For the Congress, it is bad optics. Despite the odds being currently in its favour, such an image of the party being a divided house against itself, will create negative impact. The high command will need to intervene and send a clear message against any defiance and indiscipline.
Rahul Gandhi, during a public meeting in Barnala, had made it clear to everyone that the Congress can make anyone sit at home if he tries to bully or blackmail the party. The stern remarks were in response to Channi’s supporters raising slogans in his favour while Rahul was addressing the rally.
The message does not seem to have gone across properly or it seems to have been forgotten. Rahul will not only need to reissue the message in an equally strong tone, but ensure that it is followed in letter and spirit. After all, none of the leaders in the pack among the “rebels” is above the party or more important than the party.
If a veteran and popular leader like Amarinder Singh could not win his own family borough Patiala without Congress, where do others stand? These leaders need the Congress as much as the Congress needs them.
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