Congress; on a mission to self-destruct

With assembly elections in Punjab less than a year away, the state unit of the Congress appears to be in self-destruction mode. Former chief minister and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) President Captain Amarinder Singh had been fighting an open battle with state Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa for quite some time.

It is no more a hidden secret that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had focused his attention on Punjab, and had yielded to pressure built up over the few years for a change in the state leadership.

Internal tussle
Rahul’s decision of appointing Captain Amarinder Singh as state chief and declaring him as a party’s face for the election received great criticism. Even though he was firm of his decision, he sought to please disgruntled leaders and workers of the party, including those opposed to Singh’s elevation.

Inexperienced Rahul had not only declared former Union minister Ambika Soni as in charge of the Election Campaign Committee but also he had appointed incompetent leader Charanjit Channi as the Congress Legislature Party chief, instead of retaining Sunil Jakhar who was a proficient leader. Rahul’s moves did not go down well with Captain Amarinder Singh and was taken mainly because the Party wanted to accommodate a Dalit leader in the party leadership.

Entry of a newcomer Kishor
With high hopes to turn the tide in its favour, Congress welcomed Captain Amarinder Singh’s suggestion to recruit well-known election strategist Prashant Kishor to guide the party’s campaign in the state. Kishor was a man behind Narendra Modi in the 2012 Gujarat assembly elections win and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections win, as he devised victorious election strategies for him. Also, he helped Nitish Kumar win a third straight term in the Bihar assembly elections late last year.

Witnessing the internal rift between Punjab Congresses, it seems that Kishor has a tricky task on his hands. There were no such rifts when we talk about Modi and Kumar, and Kishor’s reputation was not at stake.

Congress leaders must speak in single tone
 Punjab unit of Congress has been embroiling into one crisis to another and its leaders have been speaking in different tones. Recently Bir Devinder lashed out at Amarinder in one of his newspaper columns, and was suspended from the party on the orders of Captain. Party’s strategist Kishor got into firefighting mode and tried to calm the two leaders down.