The decision of well-known political strategist Prashant Kishor to quit as the adviser to Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has not come as a surprise. However, his quitting after his high-profile appointment has raised several questions in the state’s political circles. In fact, when he was selected to be a part of the Chief Minister’s core team, several top Congress leaders were not aware of the development. Speculation was that he was invited by a close aide of the Captain, who is also related to the Chief Minister to help assess the ground-level situation. This was the time when Amarinder was firmly in the saddle with no challenge coming in from any quarter from within the party or outside it. Soon after the appointment, the word spread amongst the Congress legislators that at least 30 to 35 of them would be changed to counter the anti-incumbency against the government. There was complete panic since each MLA wishes to be retained as the party nominee and thus the seeds of revolt against the Chief Minister started becoming visible.
No attempt was made to assuage the MLAs and instead, this message appeared to have been strengthened with neither the Captain nor the State party chief, Sunil Jakhar (he was the president at that time) contradicting this assertion. Senior leaders were equally surprised as to how could the CM’s personal advisers take a call on who should be given the party nomination. It was argued that there is a full-fledged Election Committee within the party, duly appointed by the party chief, which has the final word on the ticket matters. Therefore it was beyond Prashant Kishor or anybody else to supersede the established practice followed in the organisation for a long time. The suggestion of denial of tickets had acted as a catalyst to precipitate a political crisis in Punjab where the Captain came under direct attack from many of those who had been supporting him till then.
The party stood divided and the High Command got into action. Several MLAs came to the national capital to air their grievances against the functioning of their own government. The Central leadership from the last several months had been wanting to clip the Captain’s wings and had sent Harish Rawat as the general secretary incharge with the objective of appointing Navjot Singh Sidhu as the Pradesh president in order to create a parallel power centre. The Captain resisted the move for a long time but in face of the High Command’s persistence, could not prevent the former cricketer’s appointment. In between a battle ensued where Sidhu questioned not only the style of the functioning of his own government but openly made insinuations regarding the Chief Minister’s relationship with the Akali Dal. The developments took a dramatic turn and Sidhu was anointed as the Punjab party Chief. There are now fresh murmurs in party circles that Sidhu was made the State president on the recommendation of a report submitted by Prashant Kishor.
While no one has authenticated it but attempts are now being made to link PK’s resignation to this supposed report. If indeed he had recommended Sidhu’s appointment, his continuation as the Captain’s adviser had become untenable. The last word on Punjab Congress bickerings is yet to be heard. There is an old saying that the saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from one’s enemies.