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JALANDHAR: From “Punjab da Captain” and “Congress captain” in 2017 to his resignation on Saturday, how did Captain Amarinder Singh lose the battle of perception? While Congress led by him had lost in 2007 and 2012, he was seen as the only face in Punjab Congress who could lead the party to victory. His win over BJP’s big gun Arun Jaitley in the 2014 parliament election boosted his stature at the national level.
In 2015, it was the perception among Congress MLAs and other senior leaders that only Amarinder could lead the party to victory in 2017 that led them to rally behind him in 2015 to get then Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa replaced. Those MLAs were not wrong in their assessment as he steered the party to an impressive victory in 2017 Punjab polls by getting 77 seats.
Congress high command had been known for clipping the wings of strong regional leaders, but Captain remained irrepressible. What made him different from other Congress leaders and added to his appeal was his taking a stand when Punjab and Sikhs went through the most turbulent time of 1984. His resignation as Congress MP to protest against Operation Bluestar and passing the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act in 2004 added to his political stature.
Many may have expressed surprise when dissenting voices started getting louder in April this year in the wake of the Punjab and Haryana high court order on Kotkapura firing case, forcing Congress president Sonia Gandhi to set up a three-member panel to sort out the issue, but there were several indications that he was losing clout among MLAs and party cadres at least two years back.
With no apparent interference from the party high command in the government’s working till a few months back, which was earlier the practice in Congress, the CM had nobody to share the blame when questions were raised about his government. There may have been intervention by Congress high command in January 2020 to dissolve Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee and make a coordination committee along with another panel on manifesto implementation, but it was inconsequential, as the then AICC Punjab party affairs incharge Asha Kumari did not even convene a single meeting of both committees. Not using any of the mechanisms rather precipitated the crisis.
Amarinder remained in complete control of the government at political and administrative level, till his exit. It is believed that all the officers at the key positions were his choice, so all the questions from inside the party or from outside were directed at him. When Amarinder-baiters flagged failures of the Punjab government on the legal front in crucial cases, his advocate general came under the lens.
When Amarinder formed the government, his minsters and MLAs deferred to him. But things changed in two years. During the Congress Legislature Party meeting in the first week of August 2019, the MLAs questioned him about his performance on crucial issues. As a group of unhappy MLAs began organizing themselves and held a meeting, Amarinder placated them by inducting half a dozen of them as his advisers in September 2019. When Sunil Jakhar, who was then PPCC president started an exercise of getting feedback from the ground in December 2019, it was all negative and Jakhar had to discontinue the exercise to save his party’s government from embarrassment.
The biggest issues – Bargari sacrilege, Behbal Kalan and Kotakpura police firings, drugs and illegal mining – which helped propel Amarinder to power also diminished his popularity for want of conclusive results even though some progress was made.
While there were murmurs of discontentment, the factors which favoured Amarinder were weak high command, opposition in complete disarray in Punjab and a divided opposition within the party. However, things began moving from April when MLAs started feeling the heat following the high court order on Kotkapura firing.
This also coincided with party leader Navjot Sidhu’s posers to Amarinder on Twitter. When Amarinder attacked him and challenged him in the last week to contest from Patiala, it pushed Sidhu centre stage.
Ironically, the same set of MLAs and a few ministers, especially the Majha brigade of three ministers, who were at the forefront in organizing support for Amarinder in 2015, now turned against him as they believed that he would not be able to lead the party to victory.
The perception that he was colluding with Badals was expressed publicly by his erstwhile confidant Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa: “Uh mile hoe ne, mile hoe ne, mile hoe ne (they are colluding).’’
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In 2015, it was the perception among Congress MLAs and other senior leaders that only Amarinder could lead the party to victory in 2017 that led them to rally behind him in 2015 to get then Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa replaced. Those MLAs were not wrong in their assessment as he steered the party to an impressive victory in 2017 Punjab polls by getting 77 seats.
Congress high command had been known for clipping the wings of strong regional leaders, but Captain remained irrepressible. What made him different from other Congress leaders and added to his appeal was his taking a stand when Punjab and Sikhs went through the most turbulent time of 1984. His resignation as Congress MP to protest against Operation Bluestar and passing the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act in 2004 added to his political stature.
Many may have expressed surprise when dissenting voices started getting louder in April this year in the wake of the Punjab and Haryana high court order on Kotkapura firing case, forcing Congress president Sonia Gandhi to set up a three-member panel to sort out the issue, but there were several indications that he was losing clout among MLAs and party cadres at least two years back.
With no apparent interference from the party high command in the government’s working till a few months back, which was earlier the practice in Congress, the CM had nobody to share the blame when questions were raised about his government. There may have been intervention by Congress high command in January 2020 to dissolve Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee and make a coordination committee along with another panel on manifesto implementation, but it was inconsequential, as the then AICC Punjab party affairs incharge Asha Kumari did not even convene a single meeting of both committees. Not using any of the mechanisms rather precipitated the crisis.
Amarinder remained in complete control of the government at political and administrative level, till his exit. It is believed that all the officers at the key positions were his choice, so all the questions from inside the party or from outside were directed at him. When Amarinder-baiters flagged failures of the Punjab government on the legal front in crucial cases, his advocate general came under the lens.
When Amarinder formed the government, his minsters and MLAs deferred to him. But things changed in two years. During the Congress Legislature Party meeting in the first week of August 2019, the MLAs questioned him about his performance on crucial issues. As a group of unhappy MLAs began organizing themselves and held a meeting, Amarinder placated them by inducting half a dozen of them as his advisers in September 2019. When Sunil Jakhar, who was then PPCC president started an exercise of getting feedback from the ground in December 2019, it was all negative and Jakhar had to discontinue the exercise to save his party’s government from embarrassment.
The biggest issues – Bargari sacrilege, Behbal Kalan and Kotakpura police firings, drugs and illegal mining – which helped propel Amarinder to power also diminished his popularity for want of conclusive results even though some progress was made.
While there were murmurs of discontentment, the factors which favoured Amarinder were weak high command, opposition in complete disarray in Punjab and a divided opposition within the party. However, things began moving from April when MLAs started feeling the heat following the high court order on Kotkapura firing.
This also coincided with party leader Navjot Sidhu’s posers to Amarinder on Twitter. When Amarinder attacked him and challenged him in the last week to contest from Patiala, it pushed Sidhu centre stage.
Ironically, the same set of MLAs and a few ministers, especially the Majha brigade of three ministers, who were at the forefront in organizing support for Amarinder in 2015, now turned against him as they believed that he would not be able to lead the party to victory.
The perception that he was colluding with Badals was expressed publicly by his erstwhile confidant Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa: “Uh mile hoe ne, mile hoe ne, mile hoe ne (they are colluding).’’
Picture
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