Amid all the hullabaloo over Navjot Singh Sidhu’s resignation from Punjab Congress’s presidentship, an explosive election campaign move announced by Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi today largely went unnoticed as the media corps
got overexcited about seeking reactions to the latest twist in the party. WSN explains the strategy aimed at underplaying Sidhu’s resignation and placing the new Punjab Chief Minister as the leader of the Congress for the forthcoming polls in 2022.

PUNJAB CHIEF MINISTER CHARANJIT SINGH CHANNI, at a press conference in Chandigarh today announced that he will soon lead a massive march of lakhs of people towards Delhi to demand the repeal of the three controversial farm legislation.

“I will lead the march, we will sleep en route in the fields of the farmers, and will go and sit at the doorstep of the prime minister, to press for the demand,” he said.

With this latest salvo, Charanjit Singh Channi is making serious attempts to prove to be a far more seasoned leader of the party as any such “million people march” on Delhi will snatch the political initiative from the farm unions.

A source close to the CM said the idea behind the march on Delhi is to trigger a
massive political mobilisation activity that will lubricate the party machinery, but
without falling foul of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha’s diktat to the parties not to
undertake poll rallies.

For the moment, Channi is playing it much better than Sidhu, though the game has some other tricky players.

“At a time when Akali Dal supremo Sukhbir Singh Badal, who was forced to drop the idea of scores of rallies in a 100-day campaign run is planning a tractor march from
Mohali to Chandigarh, Channi has come up with a strategy designed to attract the
national gaze. The idea is to marshall the kinetic energy released into the political
system by the SKM Andolan,” the source said.

If Channi indeed marshalls a couple of lakh people, or even a few thousand, for his march to Delhi, the pictures of him spending nights in the fields, chatting to farmers and sleeping on their cots, and eventually reaching Delhi and culminating in a major rally, he would have proven himself to be a much more valuable asset for the Congress — a seasoned leader with SC credentials and a humble Sikh face who could gel with the ‘aam aadmi.’

The sheer scale of the march will be enough to help the party tide over the setback it has received due to Navjot Singh Sidhu’s resignation, as the frantic pace of the news cycle will make Sidhu’s resignation stale news very fast, the source said.

Also, such a major political activity will establish Channi as a leader in his own right, besides giving him and the party enough opportunities and time to stress his SC credentials.

Even at the press conference in Chandigarh on Tuesday, minutes after Sidhu’s
resignation, Channi spent considerable time narrating his own experience and
telling stories about his visits to the homes and families of farm suicide victims.
“I have been to houses that had no roof, where the earning member had committed
suicide. If you were there, you would have cried with me, too,” he said.

Channi’s strategy of projecting himself as the real ‘Aam Aadmi’, opening the gates of
the Punjab Civil Secretariat to panches, sarpanches and other elected
representatives, meeting common people, sharing meals with the poor and the hoi
polloi are all aimed at projecting his persona as a humble leader.

Congress leaders like Ravneet Singh Bittu seemed rather happy at Sidhu’s
resignation, and with little love lost between Sidhu and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa
and many senior leaders, there is little chance that the Punjab state leadership of
the party will be dying to bring back Sidhu, or that he will be able to gain the kind of
prominence, that he was looking for.

Congress leaders like Ravneet Singh Bittu seemed rather happy at Sidhu’s resignation.

If Channi indeed marshalls a couple of lakh people, or even a few thousand, for his
march to Delhi, the pictures of him spending nights in the fields, chatting to farmers
and sleeping on their cots, and eventually reaching Delhi and culminating in a major rally, he would have proven himself to be a much more valuable asset for the
Congress — a seasoned leader with SC credentials and a humble Sikh face who
could gel with the ‘aam aadmi.’

It’s the kind of challenge that will confuse Arvind Kejriwal no end. It was easier to attack Sidhu; it’s a tough challenge to abuse someone who’s hardly got the opportunity plus who seemingly means well.

For the moment, Channi is playing it much better than Sidhu, though the game has
some other tricky players. As the clock ticks towards the 2022 elections, Punjab’s
politics and the ongoing Kisan Andolan could go parallel, may intersect and even
collide.