Barring sporadic appearances, Congress state chief Navjot Singh Sidhu appears to be dithering from campaigning outside his Amritsar East constituency, something that may not augur well with the party.
Sidhu, who appeared downcast post the announcement of Charanjit Singh Channi as the Congress chief ministerial face for the February 20 polls, has been keeping a low profile even as campaigning heats up.
His family, including his namesake wife Navjot Kaur and daughter Sabia, have been mincing no words castigating Channi on a host of issues. The mother-daughter duo continue to train guns at Channi, ridiculing his ‘aam aadmi’ claims. Campaigning door-to-door in Amritsar East, the two questioned Channi’s net worth publicly, saying ‘Channi is no aam aadmi and has a net worth much more than they have’. “Rahul Gandhi has been misled into believing that Channi is an aam aadmi,” Navjot Kaur said during the campaign.
On Sunday, at a rally in Dhuri in Punjab’s Sangrur, Sidhu declined to walk up to the dais on stage in the presence of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who had turned up to campaign in support of the Congress nominee. Sidhu pointed towards Channi, indicating that the state needs to hear him as he is leading as the Congress's CM face. Ever since the Gandhis chose Channi over him, Sidhu has largely been confining himself to his constituency, although he hasn't shied away from being at rallies outside his segment where Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi were present. He has maintained that he will be present wherever the High command asks him to be for campaigning.
The Punjab battleground is turning out to be a tough call to make with the traditional bipolar contest witnessing a multi-cornered fight this time with five major contenders slugging it out. Experts feel Sidhu may not be willing to go ‘full-throttle’ now like before as it bears the risk of being drubbed in the event the party fails to win the elections. Sidhu will remain quintessential to Congress's victory in Punjab, but he will have the option of passing the buck to Channi if it fails. Channi himself has not much to lose given that he became an accidental chief minister largely owing to his Dalit credentials and was left with just 11 days of governance to flaunt as his achievement.
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