Sunil Jakhar’s pole-vault shows loyalty quotient in Congress can’t be one-way obligation

Soon after Sunil Jakhar joined the BJP, the Congress had called the move political and ideological opportunism and accused him of having helped the saffron party during the assembly elections. Yet, many in the Congress also say it is a case of the Congress leadership reaping what it sowed – committing ideological digression by foisting a convert from the BJP, Navjot Singh Sidhu, as PCC president over a whole bench of traditional Congress leaders and then denying Jakhar the CM’s post despite majority of the Congress MLAs preferring him – after Captain Amarinder Singh was made to quit – only to repackage a fourth choice-cum-neo Congress man Charanjit Singh Channi to market him as a “Dalit CM” only to see the party suffering its worst defeat.

“Not unexpected. Sunil Jakhar may have formally joined the BJP. He had started working for the party long before, playing blatantly Hindutva politics, damaging the party in every way. There was a reason for him to rake up the ‘Hindu’ card and the reason was revealed today,” said newly appointed PCC chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring.

The ‘Hindu’ card he referred to was Jakhar’s comments pre-assembly polls that he never felt he would be discriminated in the Congress on religious ground when he was denied the CM’s post despite the backing of a majority MLAs with Ambika Soni publicly stating that only a Sikh should become the CM in Punjab. Channi though, never an original Congressman, eventually emerged as the “Dalit CM” only after two Jat Sikhs – Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa – cancelled each others’ chief ministerial pitch.

The AICC ignoring Sidhu’s mid-poll tantrums and singling out Jakhar for action despite his seniority, proved to be the last straw for the latter. Thus, if the disastrous aftermath of the botched-up Punjab operation that Rahul-Priyanka executed not only smashed any chance of the Congress retaining power, its aftermath continues to show how the party is losing its biggest brand names – Captain Amarinder Singh, Jakhar – the clans the Punjab Congress has always been synonymous with. This once again shows that ‘the loyalty quotient’ in the Congress can’t be a ‘one-way obligation’ or else the regional satraps won’t even think twice before dumping the Gandhis. In Kerala, KV Thomas showed the same last week.

After its Punjab defeat, the Punjab BJP is now determinedly trying to bounce back by catching big names from the Congress with potential for social base expansion with an eye on the 2024 LS polls whereas the Congress leadership is still groping in the dark post-polls.