Is Navjot Singh Sidhu still relevant for Congress after big poll debacle?

The Congress has sought to strike a regional and caste balance in its new team in Punjab even as the leadership opted for a mix of youth and experienced in its organisational revamp following a crushing defeat by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the recently-concluded assembly elections.

The grand old party named three-time legislator from Gidderbaha and former Youth Congress president Amarinder Singh Brar alias Raja Warring as its Punjab unit chief.

Warring, 44, replaces cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu who was asked to step down from the post by Congress president Sonia Gandhi following the party’s poll debacle. Sidhu, 58, had taken over as the Punjab Congress president in July last year.

The party high command also named former Rajya Sabha member Partap Singh Bajwa as its Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader. As a result, he will also be the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab assembly.

Bajwa, 65, had won the assembly elections from Qadian in the Gurdaspur district. While Gidderbaha falls in the Muktsar district of the Malwa region, Qadian is located in the Majha region of the state.

Doaba is the third region in Punjab. While Malwa accounts for 69 of the 117 constituencies, Majha has 25 seats and 23 are in Doaba. The AAP had taken a huge lead in all three regions this time.

Though the regional balance has been maintained, both Bajwa and Warring are Jat Sikhs, the influential community in Punjab.

Not to antagonise the other communities, the party named Bharat Bhushan Ashu, a Hindu, as the working president while Raj Kumar Chabbewal, a Dalit, is the deputy CLP leader in the Punjab assembly.

The duo of Warring as a firebrand leader and Bajwa with decades of experience in Parliament and the assembly is expected to give the Congress the much-needed firepower to take on the AAP in and outside the assembly.

Warring, a known baiter of Badals, has the onerous task of rebuilding the organisation after the hammering at the hustings.

That said, the AAP’s stupendous victory has brought a major change in Punjab’s political landscape after decades. The Badals have been decimated with Akali Dal patriarch and five-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal (94) and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal (59) besides Bikram Singh Majithia (46) and some other members of the family having suffered a shock defeat in the polls.

With senior Badal unlikely to enter the electoral fray in future and Sukhbir and Bikram Majithia lacking his charisma, the Akali Dal faces a bumpy road ahead in rejuvenating the organisation and the cadre.

Similarly, the Maharaja of Patiala and two-term chief minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, too had to bite the dust and his political career seemed almost over.

With this generational shift, Congress is looking at building leadership for the future. The rejig also leaves a big question mark on the future role of Navjot Singh Sidhu in the Congress.

He tried hard to retain the post of the Punjab Congress president after being asked to step down following the poll debacle but the party high command seemed unmoved by his fresh overtures and at the same time disinclined to once again hand over the reins of the organisation to him.

He is himself to be blamed for that. His actions after being appointed the Punjab Congress chief in July last year till the end of the assembly elections had convinced the Congress leadership that his continuation at the helm would be detrimental to the party.

In the midst of campaigning, Sidhu had launched a diatribe against his own chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi that strengthened the perception of the Congress being a divided house and a party in disarray. The voters looked for a change from the traditional parties and the AAP became an obvious choice. He too lost his own election from Amritsar East.

The Congress high command weighed all options before announcing the new team. These included the possible exit of Sidhu from the party for being side-lined.

The Congress leadership knows it well that if Sidhu is not shifted out of Punjab, he is bound to give Warring and his colleagues a headache in running the party.

While there is a possibility that he might be given a role in the national team, the options before Sidhu are also limited. The AAP is no longer interested in him though his return to the BJP could not be ruled out given that the saffron party has snapped its decades-old ties with the Akali Dal, which was a key demand of the cricketer-turned-politician till he joined the Congress.

Hence, it remains to be seen if Sidhu keeps his promise of remaining a loyal Congress soldier irrespective of the post or jumps ship in search of a better future.