VIRENDRA KAPOOR
Having twice betrayed the BJP — and Arvind Kejriwal determined not to admit in AAP anyone who could question his authority — Sidhu seems to have reached a dead-end in his political career, asserts Virendra Kapoor.
It is hard to see how the Punjab Congress can present a united face in the ongoing poll after incumbent Charanjit Singh Channi was named as the party's chief ministerial candidate, ignoring Navjot Singh Sidhu's strong claims.
Short of quitting the party mid-campaign, Sidhu, the Pradesh Congress president, can be relied on to make things difficult for Channi.
No longer able to avoid the potentially divisive leadership question, Rahul Gandhi ended the confusion over the party's chief ministerial candidate on February 6.
The fact that Channi is a Dalit seems to have settled the contest.
With more than 30 percent scheduled caste vote in Punjab, the Congress would hope that a section of Dalits would be enthused to vote for the first Dalit chief minister in Punjab.
And it was willing to risk the adverse reaction of Sidhu who, sensing loss, has already begun making snide remarks against the leadership.
Admittedly, there can be no questioning the electoral considerations in naming Channi as its face — and fielding him from a second seat in the Dalit-dominated Malwa region — but the Gandhi siblings cannot escape responsibility for failing to correctly size up Sidhu.
Had they cared to look at his record they would not have elevated the self-obsessed maverick to the post of Pradesh Congress chief and fuelled further his chief ministerial ambition.
Now, before he ups and deserts them, sooner than later, he is bound to make things hard both for them and Channi.
For, there is nothing in his politics that does not cry out betrayal, most self-centred that he is.
Fortunately for the Congress, the decision of Bikramjit Singh Majithia, Sukhbir Singh Badal's brother-in-law and a former Akali minister, to challenge Sidhu in the Amritsar East assembly seat, is bound to pin him down, leaving little time for him to sow confusion in the Congress ranks elsewhere.
Majithia has left his pocket borough of the Majithia constituency, which had elected him repeatedly with huge margins, for his wife to contest from while he tries to get the better of Sidhu whom he holds singularly responsible for the recent FIR accusing him of involvement in drug trafficking, a charge he vehemently denies.
It is interesting that Sidhu decided to pay obeisance at the Vaishnodevi shrine after Rahul Gandhi promised to announce the party's CM candidate.
By the time Sidhu returned from the pilgrimage he had got the inkling that the dice was loaded against him.
Immediately, he began to take pot shots at the Gandhis, saying the party leadership prefers to have a weak chief minister so that he can be remote controlled.
The hint of rebellion could not be clearer.
Having twice betrayed the BJP — and Arvind Kejriwal determined not to admit in AAP any one ambitious who could question his authority — Sidhu seems to have reached a dead end in his political career.
He can either float his own party and be ready for a long slog which may or may not yield success.
Or go back fulltime to his ‘thoko taali hu-hi-hi-ha‘ routine on a comedy show — and further grow his wealth from the current Rs 45 crores declared under the election law.
No other option seems available as of now to the cricketer-turned-politician.
