Amarinder and Sidhu try running each other out

As the Congress high command sides with Sidhu, Amarinder Singh has taken to mollify party MLAs over lunches, while a leaderless AAP tries to make the most of the Congress infighting

A cricketing analogy would best describe the current state of affairs in the Punjab Congress, where two batsmen are trying their utmost to run each other out. Of late, both have taken to dash to Delhi with their respective howzat appeals. The umpires, the first family of the Congress, are yet to raise their finger.

When the two players, Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu, are in Chandigarh, stinging exchanges of words inevitably ensue. A gripping political buildup with fresh twists and turns unfolds each day in Punjab as it nears the Assembly polls slated for early next year. A week is a long time in politics, but there are days in the corridors of Punjab Congress that have started to seem longer.

Until sometime back, of the five poll-bound states in February 2022, Punjab looked the surest chance for the Congress party to win. The infighting is harming the party's interests. But bafflingly enough, it does not seem to be on top of the agenda of anyone in the party. Leaders in the Punjab Congress are busy burning bridges behind them.

Setting a precedent for them is the Congress first family, the Gandhis, who seemed to have shunned Amarinder Singh after feedback from disgruntled MLAs that he has remained inaccessible to them in the last four-and-a-half years. Sidhu has launched an attack on the chief minister on Twitter and in television interviews, and Amarinder Singh is responding in kind, leaving little scope for a future conciliation.

But the Gandhis have not entirely been neutral. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra recently met Sidhu. Around the same time, Amarinder Singh too was in Delhi. But he wasn't given an appointment. The message couldn't have been more explicit - a green signal to Sidhu and something to worry about for the Punjab CM.

Also read: Navjot Singh Sidhu in line to be Punjab Congress chief?

The latest round of conflict began somewhere in February when an angry Sidhu met Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi. Subsequently, Punjab affairs-in-charge of the Congress Harish Rawat reportedly conveyed Sonia Gandhi's message to Amarinder Singh to rehabilitate Sidhu. Amarinder Singh offered Sidhu a place in the state cabinet. However, Sidhu was interested in the post of Congress state unit chief. Subsequently, Rawat met Sidhu in March and offered him the deputy chief minister's post, which the latter declined.

So, why is Sidhu keen on becoming the Congress state unit president? The best place to draw a roadmap to unseat Amarinder Singh is by becoming the state unit chief. The Gandhis, the referees, seem to have sided with Sidhu to squeeze Amarinder Singh out of the game. If Congress wins the 2022 assembly elections, Sidhu will be in the best position to stake a claim for the chief minister's post as the state unit chief. But to be able to win the polls, the inner differences have to be resolved.

However, there is no truce in sight. The Congress MLAs have knocked at the doors of 10 Janpath with their grievances against Amarinder Singh. Nearly three dozen Congress legislators had apprised the Congress high command that voters were not satisfied with the government's handling of the sacrilege case. Neither did these MLAs show any solid support to Sidhu. Yet all the grumblings that reached the Congress high command immediately found their echo in Sidhu's tweets.

This has suggested that while Sidhu is leading the rebellion against Amarinder Singh, the top leadership in Delhi has contrived it. Predictably, Amarinder Singh is miffed with the high command. While he is keen to score a first-ever back-to-back victory in the assembly polls, Amarinder Singh can bring the Punjab Congress to get its act together, but only if he is at the helm. He has taken to host luncheon meetings and even managed to win over some of the disgruntled MLAs back into his fold.

As part of the lunch diplomacy, he recently hosted the party's Hindu MLAs at his residence on July 1. In a bid to cut Sidhu to size, Amarinder Singh floated the idea that a Hindu or a Dalit face should lead the Punjab Congress into the 2022 polls. But the current state unit chief, Sunil Jakhar, is Hindu. Of late, Amarinder Singh and Jakhar do not see eye to eye after the latter's criticism of the chief minister for offering jobs to Congress MLAs Fateh Jang Bajwa and Rakesh Pandey's sons to get them to be on his side.

Amarinder Singh hosted two luncheon meetings in the last few months. In the last week of March, he lunched with 20 MLAs and the other in the second week of June with 10 MLAs from the Amritsar district.

Therefore, the current political equation in the Punjab Congress is as follows: Amarinder Singh plus Punjab ministers plus the CM's luncheon guest MLAs versus the Congress high command plus Sidhu. Former Gurdaspur MP Pratap Singh Bajwa, former CM Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Jakhar, all key players, are currently fence-sitters.

The people's anger at the unresolved issue of sacrilege is likely to be directed at the Badals and Amarinder Singh. The incidents took place during the regime of the Badals. Amarinder Singh had vowed but failed to bring the guilty to book.

The circumstances offer the Aam Aadmi Party an opportunity to get lucky this time round if it plays its cards well. However, if Congress is a house divided between Sidhu and Amarinder Singh, the AAP is almost a leaderless party in Punjab.

Keen watchers of Punjab affairs who some time back thought Congress had a fair chance of being voted back to power now say that the top leaders of the Congress are digging their graves.

(The writer is a Chandigarh-based journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the authors’ own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.