Congress leaders in Punjab continue to damage the party while competing for the mirage that is chair of the chief minister

 

Congress leaders in Punjab battling over what presently is mirage -The CM Chair

 

Ground Zero

 

Jagtar Singh

 

The present Assembly election in Punjab is different from the earlier ones for yet one more reason.

The top Congress leadership that is ruling party in Punjab is engaged in no-holds-barred fight over what under the given situation seems to be mirage - who would be the chief minister in case even by a remote chance the party manages to retain power for which a chief ministerial face has to be declared.

Normally, this situation emerges when the party is not in power. In this case, the party has a chief minister in Charanjit Singh Channi who has the distinction of being the first from the scheduled castes to occupy this high office in this state.

This is a two horse race in which the competitors happens to be Channi and state party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu. While Channi is low profile and has been taking pains to project himself as the commoner after taking over from Capt Amarinder Singh, Sidhu has no pretensions about being over ambitious and he has been going around marketing himself aggressively.

But the basic issue is that of the Congress overcoming strong anti-incumbency and fighting against two other strong competitors and two other formations whose impact on the electoral dynamics continues to be assessed. These include the newly formed Sanyukt Samaj Morcha and the Bharatiya Janata Party led alliance that includes the Punjab Lok Congress led by Capt Amarinder Singh and a breakaway Akali faction headed by Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.

What is clear so far is that the BJP is going ahead full throttle despite the fact that the party is in no position to capture power. Post-poll arrangement is a different dimension but for that, this formation has to win respectable number of seats. The BJP has been piggybacking the Shiromani Akali Dal since the 1997 Assembly election.

Interestingly, even after the last date for nominations is over, party leaders continue to switch sides and the latest case is that of former Punjab Congress chief H S Hanspal who today joined AAP as his son was no accommodated.

This election has further reinforced the perception  that there is nothing like party loyalty or ideological commitment and the only issue is that of self-promotion. After all, politics is now a big business and easy way to make money if one happens to be at the right place and at the right time.

So many people have crossed sides that the impact has been neutralised. It does not matter much as to on which side a leader is.

It is the Congress   that continues to provide more entertainment with its inner power struggle revolving around the chief ministerial face.

Sidhu, who made his position at Jalandhar recently in the presence of Rahul Gandhi saying that he would not like to be a show piece, has been dropped from the list of star campaigners for Uttarakhand. The Congress has been utilising his services in all earlier elections in other regions. This is a signal.

Although he has suddenly been caught in a pitched battle, he left for Vaishno Devi shrine near Jammu yesterday at the time when every day counts. But then it is a matter of faith.

The Congress  leaders should be fighting not only their personal battles but focus on respectable numbers that can provide space for their ambitions to proliferate.

It is not the fight for future chief ministership among the top leaders that is damaging the party. The factional fight at the constituency too has the potential to play havoc.

The Shiromani Akali Dal is going steady.

The situation is changing in the state almost every day.