Punjab Exit Polls Predict Congress Loss, But Gandhis May Placate Sidhu, Give Channi Key Role to Woo Dalits

As the numbers came in for the exit polls on Monday and gave an impressive edge to the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab, there was a deathly silence in the Congress office in Chandigarh. A Congress leader contesting this time from the state said, “No surprises here as we have dug our own grave.” While the Congress at the Centre put up a brave face saying it would wait for the actual results to come in, there is a sense of foreboding within the party.

But on a day when the exit polls data was being worked out, what were the top two of the Punjab Congress doing? Chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi was in Delhi meeting union home minister Amit Shah, asking for help for students stuck in Ukraine. State Congress unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu was at the party office in Chandigarh, busy with a membership drive. His own electoral fate is uncertain as some feel he faces a tough fight with Akali Dal candidate Bikram Majithia.

But all is already not well within the Punjab Congress. A few days ago, the party top leadership held a meeting in Delhi. Two important issues were discussed. One, Channi, even if the Congress loses, will continue to play an important role for the party and the organisation, Both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are convinced that one of the ways to make a dent in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls is to capture the Dalit narrative. Not just in Uttar Pradesh, but in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and other states, the Congress feels that if it can successfully play the role of being a “messiah of the Dalits”, then it would have a head start. Channi is likely to be one of the mascots for this.

It’s Sidhu’s future that is also being widely discussed. His power came from the fact that the Gandhis, especially Priyanka, strongly batted for him. Sidhu’s supporters say that he was used to overthrow Captain Amarinder Singh and then the entire Congress ganged up against him, and there was complete non-cooperation from the party despite the fact that he was the state unit chief. This was conveyed to Priyanka when she was campaigning in Punjab and, after he refused to make a speech in her presence with the excuse of having a scratchy throat, she went to his home in Amritsar and campaigned for him. Not just that, she insisted that Channi too hold a joint rally with him. But the bonhomie did not last long and the rift within Congress was there for all to see.

If the Congress loses in Punjab, Sidhu, who is not known for mincing his words, is bound to speak out and it’s this worry that is likely to make the Gandhis placate him by giving him some responsibility.

But a defeat would once again be a clear sign that the Gandhis’ experiment with politics often puts the party’s future into jeopardy.

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