Channi Or Sidhu, A Tough Question For The Congress
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-01-31 09:58:12
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
Will Charanjit Singh Channi finally become the chief minister face of the Congress in Punjab? Some indication to this end was provided when he was nominated from another seat, Bhadaur, in addition to his traditional seat Chamkaur Sahib. Rahul Gandhi had already said that the party will announce the chief ministerial face before the elections. It is actually a two-horse race for the post. Navjot Singh Sidhu harbours a burning desire to be the chief minister of Punjab. He had gone after Amarinder Singh for precisely that reason. But the party high command decided to put Channi in the hot seat after the Captain's resignation. It was not known how Sidhu was placated then. But now, with a new assembly to be elected, Sidhu is not going to backtrack easily. In fact, he had angrily told reporters a few weeks back that the people, and not the party high command, will decide who the chief minister will be.
With Sidhu having a major say in the allocation of seats to aspirants, it is obvious that many elected MLAs will be loyal to him. If the Congress gets a majority, or even emerges as the single largest party (a possibility that looks remote as of now, with AAP surging ahead in the race), it will be difficult for the Congress high command to ignore Sidhu and side with Channi once again. If it wants to keep Channi as the chief minister if it wins then it has to make sure that a majority of the newly-elected MLAs would support such a move. The party cannot afford another ugly internal dispute. It has already suffered several blows to its image ever since Sidhu started targeting Captain Singh and then again when he interfered in several high profile appointments by Channi. For the Congress, keeping its house in order seems to be the major problem in Punjab. This is the major reason the party is delaying announcement of its CM face.
