Congress leaders have publicly maintained that the party will go into the Punjab polls with a “collective” leadership but Thursday’s visit by Rahul Gandhi has had “anxious” state leaders hoping that he could provide some clarity on who leads them into the hustings.
Gandhi will kick off Congress’ campaign ahead of the upcoming assembly elections, with a day-long tour that begins with paying obeisance at Golden Temple, Durgiana Mandir and Bhagwan Valmiki temple accompanied by 117 party candidates. He will hold a virtual ‘Punjab Fateh’ rally at Mithapur in Jalandhar before flying back to Delhi.
There is much anticipation ahead of his visit, with the state unit still facing a bitter internal battle between Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu over who will be the chief ministerial face. Some senior leaders are hoping that Gandhi could actually spring a surprise by clarifying who the numero uno leader is.
The official line take by the party this time has been that it will go into the elections under the combined leadership of Channi, a Dalit Sikh; Sidhu, a Jat; and Sunil Jakhar, a Hindu leader.
But some leaders are taking a cue from 2017. Barely a week before the 2017 assembly elections, Gandhi had, during a party gathering in Majitha, announced Capt Amarinder Singh as the chief ministerial candidate of the party. He had then played the ‘son of the soil’ card for Capt Amarinder, saying only a Punjabi can be the chief minister of the state while projecting the AAP as a party of “outsiders” trying to wrest control of the state from Punjabis.
“Is this the moment? We don’t know but we hoping that at least, if not direct, he would make some subtle announcement so that the cadre isn’t confused on who will lead us into the poll,’’ a senior leader remarked.
Both Sidhu and Channi have publicly asserted that the announcement of a CM face could give an edge to the party in the run-up to the polls. What has made the party leaders apprehensive is that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has already taken a lead over Congress by announcing a CM face. “The pressure is on and we hoping that by announcing a face we can build up a momentum and seize back the initiative,” commented a leader.
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