All is well that ends well. The Congress has finally managed to put its house in order in Punjab. It took some time for the party but in the end it managed reasonably well. The party undoubtedly stands a bright chance in Punjab in the ensuing assembly elections scheduled around January-February next year.
After the exit of former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, there was a vacuum and a lot of space left in the party for his successors. The space was and continues to remain for the next generation of leaders to compete for. What was actually competition to grab that space was wrongly interpreted as a factional fight.
Eventually, the Congress decided to maintain status quo while conveying a message of broadening the leadership orbit and bringing many seniors and veterans in. Amarinder Singh Raja Warring will continue to be PCC president, while Partap Singh Bajwa will continue to lead the Congress Legislature Party.
Prominent inclusion in the new team has been that of former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi as chairman of the Campaign Committee and AICC general secretary Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa as chairman of the Core Committee. The Congress had to accommodate these four and make them feel that they remain important and very much in reckoning for the chief ministerial role if the party wins the 2027 assembly elections. Each one of them apparently has been made to feel and believe that it can be anyone of them.
The Congress high command appeared to have used all its organisational skills to maintain a balance. This is the best the party could do under the current circumstances. With at least three strong contenders for the post of the PCC president, the high command took the safer route of not changing the status quo. Had Warring been removed, only one leader could be appointed in his place. This would leave two others, besides Warring, again disappointed. This would lead to opening up a Pandora’s box.
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The Congress’ main concern was how to utilise the services of Channi. Although he is junior to many, particularly Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Partap Singh Bajwa, since he was appointed chief minister in September 2021, his stature rose in the party. Besides, he is a prominent Dalit face in Punjab today. The party did want to convey a clear message to the powerful and influential Dalit community across Punjab, which constitutes 32 per cent of the state’s population, highest in the country that it does recognise and acknowledge its importance.
At the same time, it did not want to antagonise the dominant Jatt Sikh community. Had the party removed Warring and replaced him with Channi, it could have upset many calculations. In Punjab, politics no doubt is not driven by caste factor at the micro level, but at the macro level, caste does play a role in a subtle way. The Congress learnt it a bitter way in 2022, when it was swept off from the Jatt Sikh-dominated Malwa belt, losing 68 of the 69 seats from there, just because it was not being led by a Jatt Sikh.
Chairman of the Campaign Committee remains one of the most important positions in the party at the time of elections. Although Channi would still have liked to be PCC president, he will not be unhappy with this assignment either. Besides, having been former chief minister, he will always be in the reckoning, rather the frontrunner, for the chief ministerial position irrespective of the fact whether he is appointed PCC president or not. He is the only former chief minister right now active in the Congress. Another former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal does not remain in competition as she is well past 80 years now.
Despite retaining Warring as PCC president and Bajwa as CLP leader, the Congress high command has conveyed clear signal that they don’t hold any special advantage over others and everyone is an equal stakeholder in the battle ahead. The message also seems to have gone across well and has been taken in the right spirit.
Now with the Congress high command having already made the appointments, the leadership battle has also been settled.
Congress leaders in Punjab are endowed with a typical character. Each one of them will fight to the finish as long as the position is available. Once the position has been settled and decided, everyone falls in line. Everyone knows that there can only be one president and once he has been endorsed by the high command, defiance against the president would be construed as defiance against the high command itself.
That is why, once the leadership issue gets settled, everyone fights the elections together. At least that has been happening till now.
Although the “disillusioned and alienated” leaders in the past did not have any alternative but to continue with the party, now with a few more options, particularly the BJP being actively around, there is probability of some last-minute switchovers. But right now that remains a highly unlikely proposition, as the BJP does not have anything better to offer to such leaders than what they already have.
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