Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president, Navjot Singh Sidhu faces a stiff challenge from the Shiromani Akali Dal and its former ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, in the Assembly polls from Amritsar East. It is evident that the well-planned strategy, possibly with inputs from Sidhu’s bête noire, Captain Amarinder Singh, seeks to lay a political Chakravyuh to trap the former Cricketer, who for the past few months has been batting from outside his crease on several occasions. The Akalis and the BJP may no longer be together but they would both want that the Congress leader is somehow defeated. The fourth angle to this nail-biting contest would be from the Aam Aadmi Party whose objective also is Congress Mukt Bharat. Sidhu has never lost an election till now but has to overcome this huge impediment that has pitted him against his political foes in an arena where to become the man of the match, he shall have to vanquish the combined opposition to him. On the face of it, his opponents are contesting the polls separately but they are all geared up to give Congress a beating in this region. The role of the Kisan Union headed by Balbir Singh Rajewal would also have to be viewed closely as it could impact the outcome if the fight becomes extremely close. Sidhu’s rivals attempt to tie him down to one area and also malign him through propaganda that is primarily being used to psychologically weaken him.
The situation in cricketing terms is similar to when the swashbuckling Opening batsman encountered ferocious bowling in the Caribbean from some of the most dangerous players of his era. The Akalis have declared Bikram Singh Majithia, brother-in-law of Sukhbir Singh Badal as their nominee from the constituency, besides from Majitha which is his own Assembly segment. Majithia has been accused by Sidhu and many other Congress leaders of being the kingpin of the drugs and narcotics trade in the border state. He now wants to settle the issue electorally by preventing the Congress leader from winning.
The BJP has fielded Jagmohan Singh Raju, a 1985 batch IAS officer who recently quit the bureaucracy to join the electoral fray. He is a Dalit and has a distinguished service and academic record. Born in Faridkot, his father was a well known civil servant of Punjab. The idea of fielding him is to offset the Dalit votes, which as per projections would largely go to the Congress after Charanjit Singh Channi was made the Chief Minister of the State. In addition, he would be hoping to garner a section of Hindu votes, which are aligned with the BJP. Majithia is expected to cut in to the Jat Sikh votes which in the past elections that Sidhu, contested had overwhelmingly gone in his favour, given his iconic status. The Aam Aadmi Party would also be certainly making inroads in the vote share. Rajewal, who is believed to be close to the Captain, could make a further difference.
The idea in Amritsar East is to somehow weaken Sidhu’s vote bank collectively so that a surprise winner could be thrown up. It may be recalled that the Captain after demitting office last year had declared that he would make every effort to get Sidhu defeated by fielding a strong candidate against him. Political circles had wondered whether he was himself planning to contest against him in Amritsar but this is not happening since the former CM shall be filing his nomination from Patiala on Monday. However, being a master strategist, he may have laid this political minefield for the Congress leader. Sidhu had earlier claimed that during his tenure, Amarinder Singh had a secret understanding with both the BJP on one hand and the Akalis on the other. There would be clarity on this charge once the campaign progresses. In addition, Sidhu’s half-sister, Suman Toor, who lives in the United States, surfaced in Chandigarh to make certain personal allegations against Sidhu. She alleged that their mother, Nirmal Bhagwant Singh was in her last years, badly treated by her brother who was obsessed with amassing the family property. Sidhu has described these charges as baseless and political veterans recall that Nirmal Bhagwant Singh (earlier Nirmal Sodhi) had contested unsuccessfully on a Congress ticket from Dakala in 1972, losing by less than 2500 votes to Jasdev Singh of the Akali Dal. Old Patiala residents also recall that Sidhu, fondly nicknamed Sherry during his childhood was extremely close to his mother and at their Yadvindra Colony house, no one other than her was allowed by him to comb and tie his hair. This is a personal matter best left to the family to sort out.
However, in view of fast-changing developments in the political scenario, some of Sidhu’s supporters want him to also contest from a second seat, preferably Patiala, to counter the Captain’s offensive. If this was not possible, they feel that he should spend quality time in Patiala to pin down his opponent. Before Amarinder Singh’s government was toppled by his own party, there had been this talk of Sidhu Vs the Captain contest in Patiala. This would have been a mother of all elections and the focus would have shifted from Amritsar in Majha to Patiala in the Malwa region.
Many more twists and turns would take place in the near future when the Congress High Command announces its Chief Ministerial face shortly.
It is evident that it would be suicidal for the grand old party to have someone other Channi as its principal mascot at this juncture.