Jakhar factor and Punjab Congress; Will the party leadership do some homework?
With Sunil Jakhar leaving active electoral politics, the Congress leadership needs to revisit Punjab.
Sunil Jakhar’s decision to stay away from electoral politics from now has come. It was indeed bound to come, for sure. Such has been the happenings on in the Punjab unit of the Congress party. Jakhar calling it quits needs to be seen from just not the election perspective, but outside of it too.
Is the Congress high command doing its homework at all, one is forced to wonder! The leadership has relegated the affairs of the party in Punjab into just a tussle between Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and the state party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.
The Congress leadership decided to give voters just Sidhu and Channi as choices for them to pick the Chief minister candidate for the party ahead of the Assembly polls. And the party has finally decided on Channi to lead the race.
Jakhar decision was expected
Even before all this drama, Jakhar seems to have decided his course of action. Jakhar, a former president of the Congress party in Punjab, had stayed away from the campaigning scene too, as he wasn’t a candidate.
Now with Jakhar stating that he was leaving active electoral politics, the Congress leadership needs to revisit the turn of affairs till so far. Punjab goes to the polls at a time the Congress party is in power. Throwing away all chances of a return to power is what the party had been trying to do over the past months, and the voters in Punjab must have already gauged what the party is capable of.
Even after Amarinder Singh quit following squabbles with Navjot Sidhu, the tussle for power continued. Sidhu acts as if he is at the centre of all things in Punjab Congress, but he has been snubbed time and again. However, he refuses to learn.
Party leadership fails to see reality
Jakhar was hopeful of being handed the Chief Minister’s position after Amarinder Singh had quit. He has spoken publicly as to how MLAs had supported him, much more than Channi and Sidhu. He had the numbers to show, but the Congress leadership in Delhi failed to see them. Finally, Jakhar has said goodbye to electoral politics.
Jakhar announcing that he would continue to serve the party should be seen as a good move by the Congress high command. Leaders with a better mass support are what the party should be looking at this point of time. The outcome of the Assembly polls should be taken as a benchmark for the party to act on for the future. Hope the party leadership will start doing its homework, at least now.
