The Congress party in Punjab wants to come up with a “consulting-culture” after it has seemingly found an impending trouble in deciding a candidate for CMs position. The party knows that, no monkey-balancing act can assuage the friction within the party if it goes with the “high command will decide” culture.
Often, the party high command decides CM candidate after consulting MLAs. However, in Punjab, as Rahul Gandhi said, “The party will soon declare a chief ministerial candidate after consulting workers.”
Although the decision is being delegated to workers, Congress doesn’t have much options, the only speculated options are Siddu and Channi yet the party is aware of the repercussions it will face if it removes a current CM who came out strong and staved off anti-incumbency against the Congress.
Another factor that favours Channi is that he belongs to the Dalit section of the population who at 32 per cent have a dominant presence in the state. The Congress would not want to send a message that the opposition parties can exploit by not nominating him.
Congress adversaries in the past have claimed that Channi elevation was just a trick to attract the votes of the weaker section, and removing Channi now will only strengthen their narrative, putting the Congress on a backseat before the assembly elections. In addition to that, Congress has invested a lot in the campaigns depicting “Channi has cleaned the stains left by Amarinder Singh”, party would seldom want to dump a face that has changed the perception towards Congress.