The state Congress’s top leadership, not long ago, stood vertically divided between the rival factions led by former Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh and Congress Legislature Party leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. Amarinder Singh’s appointment as PCC President, proximity of the Assembly elections and the pressure of the party high command forced them to forge unity. Amarinder Singh’s image of being a fighter infused a new life into the hibernated party organization and its workers started massively responding to the party’s public rallies.

Despite the semblance of unity between the rival factions, the functioning of the organizational and legislative wings suffers from lack of cohesiveness and coordination. This was evident on the very first day of the Assembly session during the Governor Shivraj Patil address. On inquiry by the party MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira about the party’s strategy, Bhattal told him that the party did not want to create any disturbance during Patil’s address.

The address strongly criticized the UPA government’s alleged discrimination against Punjab in various fields. Midway through the address, Congress legislators started getting restless. Alleging that the Address contained “blatant lies” the Congress staged a walk out. Later, at the CLP meeting some members took exception to the CLP not holding a meeting earlier to formulate the party’s strategy.

The Congress’s goof-off on the very first day of the Session has exposed the lack of coordination and cohesiveness in the party even after having forged unity.

The Akali Dal is organizationally also not in a happy state. The party leadership’s fears that former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal’s expulsion might cost it particularly in the Malwa region have proved correct. There has been an erosion in the party’s base at least in the Malwa region. There has also been a steady outflow of party’s disgruntled leaders to Manpreet’s camp. Even Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s efforts to pacify some of them like the Youth Akali Dal President Kiranbir Singh Kang who resigned from the post have not succeeded.

No doubt, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s organizational expertise supplemented by the use of official machinery is drawing crowds to the party’s public rallies. But the main reason behind the revolt of some of the party men including Kang is the style of functioning of former minister and Sukhbir Singh’s brother-in-law Bikramjit Singh Majithia. Kang had resigned after leveling serious charges about the functioning of the party due to his “ideological differences” with Majithia who is now YAD’s patron.

Majithia’s offensive style of functioning is not only causing resentment in some sections of the party but is also soiling the party image. The latest instance is his outburst at a rally at Majithia where he said “I am alone enough to sever the head of Capt. Amarinder Singh if he does not stop rough language against Akali leaders.” Facing condemnation for his remarks he later explained that his comment was, in fact, the idiom used in the political context. His remarks apparently were in response to Amarinder Singh’s reported personal attack against Chief Minister’s family members to which Parkash Singh Badal had recently taken objection.

The unfortunate aspect of the Punjab’s political scene is that with the approach of Assembly polls, standards and norms of public debate are touching lowest ebbs with some of the Congress and Akali leaders resorting to below-the-belt attacks against each other. Majithia’s joining of their ranks and using street language to criticize the opponents reminds one the phrase “Bade Mian So Bade Mian Chhote Mian Subhan Allah”. The seemingly introspective Bade Mian (Sukhbir Singh) who had resorted to vendetta politics against Amarinder Singh after the Akali-BJP assumed power in 2007 has ostensibly changed his attitude if one goes by his reported comments recently made at Ludhiana on February 24. He reportedly said that he had risen above vendetta politics and that “We have to forget about vendetta and let bygones be bygones”. A welcome development if the stance is maintained during the run-up to the Assembly poll. He has apparently drawn a lesson from his Chief Minister father’s sophisticated and cultured nature.

It is in the backdrop of the state of the Akali Dal and the Congress that their election strategies need to be examined.

The Governor’s address to the Assembly, the ruling leadership’s expensive print media advertisement campaign and its foundation stone laying spree show the Akali-BJP alliance’s two-point election strategy: Development and crusade against the Centre for allegedly discriminating against Punjab. In fact, right from the Emergency years the Akali leadership has thrived on its anti-centre tirade whenever a Congress-led government was in power in New Delhi.

In sharp contrast to the ruling alliance’s strategy, the Congress will expose the “hollowness of its claims of development which are based entirely on promises sans implementation”. Besides, it would target the Akali Dal for non-governance, “pushing Punjab to the brink of bankruptcy” and blaming the UPA government for discriminating against Punjab while itself not fully utilising the central grants. Among other points of the party’s strategy would be to attack the ruling alliance for the miserable state of law and order and launching vendetta against Congressmen.

It is Punjab’s misfortune that instead of basing their election campaigns on policies and their implementation, the aspirants of power are polluting the state’s political atmosphere by resorting to each other’s character assassination and indulging in political vulgarity. (IPA Service)