In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress was badly defeated by the second wave of Narendra Modi in the country, but there was a hope. It was from Punjab where Captain Amarinder Singh as the CM overcame all odds to win eight of the state’s 13 Lok Sabha seats.
Within three years of the same, Congress has lost Punjab and all its top leaders have faced defeat. Captain, who was unnecessarily removed from the post of Chief Minister five months ago, lost from Patiala while contesting from his new party. Congress’ Dalit trump card and chief ministerial face Charanjit Singh Channi lost both the seats and state party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu lost his seat. The party fell to a low of 18 seats and 23% vote share.
So how did Congress get there? Answers to the same lie, a series of missteps by the Gandhi siblings and bitter infighting in the ranks that never subsided, to bring the Congress to power in 2017.
Capt Amarinder Singh He became the Chief Minister who promised the people two main things – justice in the emotional sacrilege of 2015 and the police firing case in Faridkot and the solution of the drug problem in the state. He also took an oath on the holy book of the Sikhs that he would implement these issues.
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But the patience of the people started running out from 2019 onwards when Captain neither took action against Badal in the sacrilege-police firing cases nor against Akali Dal leader Bikram Majithia in the drug case. The High Court’s move to quash the SIT probe last year was a major setback for Captain Sarkar and its credibility was damaged. The Congress high command also realized this and decided to replace the Captain just five months before the elections.
But as it is now proved, it was a decision that was abandoned too late as the damage had already been done. To make matters worse, the Gandhi siblings chose a relatively unknown face in Charanjit Singh Channi as CM instead of Navjot Singh Sidhu, who sought the removal of Capt on the twin issues of justice in sacrilege and drug abuse cases. Rally for Channi was projected as a “Dalit trump card” in a state not known for caste politics, the best example of which was the failed BSP’s growth in Punjab.
The result was that the cold war between Sidhu and Captain turned into a cold war between Sidhu and Channi and both the leaders openly criticized each other and Sidhu in anger resigned from the post of state party chief and Didn’t give much explanation for this. Change of heart
The party could not put up a united face on any occasion and matters got worse after Rahul Gandhi announced Channi as the chief minister ahead of Sidhu in an unexpected move.
Congress did this after being stumped by AAP Bhagwant Mann as your CM face. The Congress, which had earlier publicly said that it would contest the elections under “collective leadership” and would not declare a CM face, took a U-turn under pressure from the AAP. Result – An angry Sidhu confined himself to the Amritsar (East) seat and did not go out to campaign, while in the core Malwa region, none of the top Congress faces such as Sidhu, Sunil Jakhar or Pratap Singh Bajwa campaigned did.
Jakhar made matters worse for the Congress by saying that when Channi ousted him he was the majority choice of MLAs as CM. Jakhar’s remarks became a source of Sikh-Hindu politics in Punjab, which worked against the party. Jakhar also announced that he was quitting politics midway through the campaign. Congress leaders like Manish Tewari were dropped from the list of star campaigners because they were considered close to Captain Amarinder Singh.
Channi could not do anything further in the cases of sacrilege-police firing in the chair in 111 days, which paved the way for the elimination of the Congress party from the Malwa region and Aam Aadmi Party The Majha region also entered what is known as the Sikh Panthic base in the state.
Channi eventually filed an FIR against Majithia in a drug abuse case, but again the case seemed too little, too late because by then the minds of the people were ready to oust the Congress.
Above all, the defeat of the Congress in Punjab is also a matter of a deep longing for “change” in the state and people bought the dream of corruption free governance and change in the system as promised by Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann.
While many in Punjab were critical of the Congress and the Akali Dal, the real anger in the state was against the “system” and the feeling that the Congress and the Akali Dal were joining hands to protect each other’s interests while in power. .
AAP promised to end this “system and complicity” and take action against illegal sand mining mafia, illegal transport mafia and create employment in the state by setting up industries. Bhagwant Mann’s saying that he would create jobs in Punjab to prevent every other youth from taking the IELTS exam and going to Canada, struck a chord.
The urge for ‘change’ was so strong that despite the Congress giving full support to the farmers, the peasant movement had no effect.
When News18.com traveled widely during the campaign, one could see a widespread sense of gloom in the state among people. It was a state where people had given up hope in the political class to solve their problems or improve their lives and the youth thought that it was better to go abroad with migrant laborers from other states plowing the fields.
AAP came as a big ray of hope with its ‘Rangala Punjab’ model, which Punjabis are now waiting for from Mann and Kejriwal.
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