Chief Minister Channi projects a new Congress in Punjab – but can he convince voters?

If all goes to plan, Punjab Chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi should complete his PhD by early next year – around the time the state goes to polls.

The 58-year-old Channi already has a bachelor’s degree in law and a masters in business administration. For his PhD at Panjab University, Channi has chosen to study his own party: the Indian National Congress.

“His research focuses on organisational and electoral strategies of the Congress party since 2004,” said Emanual Nahar, who has supervised Channi’s PhD for four years. According to Nahar, the chief minister has many suggestions and recommendations for the party leadership in his thesis.

“He has interviewed a lot of politicians during his work and he has also gone into the question of the failure of the Congress since 2014,” added Nahar, who specialises in Dalit and minority issues and is also chairman of the state minorities commission.

In fact, Channi’s ascendance as chief minister itself was the outcome of an organisational crisis in the Congress. His appointment in September came after months of turmoil in the party’s state’s unit. Friction between two-time chief minister Amarinder Singh and state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu prompted the party high command in Delhi to intervene – Channi, a three-time legislator from Punjab’s Chamkaur Sahib assembly constituency, and a minister in Amarinder Singh’s cabinet, was picked to replace him.

A Dalit chief minister

Channi’s appointment is also a milestone in Punjab’s electoral history. He is the first chief minister who belongs to a Scheduled Caste community. Scheduled Castes account for 32% of Punjab’s population, the highest proportion among all the states and Union Territories. However, all its chief ministers have been from the landowning Jat Sikh community. The only exception was Giani Zail Singh, who was an Other Backward Class leader.

“Nobody knows if Channi will be the next chief minister or whether the Congress will choose him again if they win,” said Kuljeet Singh, a farm labourer and a Dalit Sikh from Liddran village in Sangrur district. But what Channi’s ascendance had ensured, he said, was that every political party was talking about appointing Dalit leaders to top positions.

It is common for parties to woo Dalits before elections, he pointed out.

In April, for instance, the Sikh-centric Shiromani Akali Dal promised a Dalit deputy chief minister if voted to power in Punjab. Not to be left behind, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Akali Dal’s former ally, promised a Dalit chief minister on the same day. Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party, which made a promising entry in Punjab’s political scene a few years ago, has a Dalit legislator as leader of the Opposition in the Punjab assembly.

But by actually elevating Channi, Kuljeet Singh felt, the Congress had outplayed the others. “Earlier, the parties would just promise representation to Dalits but now they have to implement those promises,” he said.

The antidote

According to Ashutosh Kumar, who teaches political science at Panjab University, the Congress’s decision to make Channi the face of the party also helped divert some of the grievances that had grown under the chief ministership of Amarinder Singh, known as “Captain” because of his army past.

Over the last few years, the Captain’s popularity had waned – he had been unable to crack down on Punjab’s drug rings as he had promised, he was viewed as inaccessible to the public and sometimes even to his own party members.

“When Congress came to power in 2017, Captain had promised a lot of things but he didn’t deliver much,” said Kumar. “What Channi has been able to do is to completely stave off that anger against the party by [making it seem like] it was some other party’s government before he became the chief minister.”

For instance, it was only in December that former minister and Akali Dal legislator, Bikram Singh Majithia, was booked in a drug case, with the government warning that he would be arrested soon. For years, Amarinder Singh was believed to have gone “soft” on him, even at the cost of a revolt within his own party.

Jasjeet Singh, a businessman from Chamkaur Sahib, echoed similar views. He even tried to gauge the Congress’s approval ratings before and after Channi. “When the Congress won in 2017, its image was good among about 70% of the population,” he estimated. “After four years of Singh’s rule, that had come to almost zero. Channi is not Amarinder Singh but he’s been able to restore the image of the party to 40%.”

The many faces of Channi

Ever since taking oath as chief minister, Channi has announced a slew of populist measures and sops for different sections of the state’s population. Earlier this month, he issued a list of 60 decisions implemented during his 72 days as chief minister.

His government has waived electricity bills for domestic consumers up to two kilowatts. Under the Basera scheme, it has also started conferring proprietary rights on slum dwellers living on the government land in urban areas.

But Channi is careful not to emphasise his Dalit identity beyond a point or to announce measures that could upset landowning Jat Sikhs, the dominant community in Punjab, Kumar. “He doesn’t play the Dalit card but identifies himself as a poor man from a humble background,” said Kumar. It was in keeping with Channi’s Congress background, Kumar felt – Punjab’s new chief minister believed in the status quo, even though he happened to be a Dalit.

For some, Channi’s effort to project himself as the everyman’s chief minister has failed to cut ice. “The problem with him is that he’s trying to be everything,” said a sceptical Gurpreet Singh, a Dalit Sikh who sings devotional songs at the gurudwara in Sangrur and also works as a farm labourer. “Some days he meets rickshaw drivers and says he used to drive a rickshaw. On another day, he says he’s a labourer. The next day, it’s a new story.”

These optics, according to Gurpreet Singh, did not always help in gaining public trust. “There’s a difference between what he says and what actually happens on the ground,” he said. “Long-term solutions are missing. Punjab’s unemployment, drug problem and agricultural crisis are not being tackled.”

Even Nahar, Channi’s research guide, worried about Channi overstretching himself with his promises. “He’s announcing too many things,” he said. “The main part of any decision or scheme is its implementation. Otherwise, they will just be announcements.”

No chief ministerial candidate

There is another factor affecting Channi’s – and the Congress’s – chances. The party has not formally announced a chief ministerial candidate. With the party still riven by internal feuds, voters are not sure who they will get as chief minister if they vote Congress. There is, for instance, a barely veiled conflict between Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and Channi.

“What’s the guarantee that Channi will be the next chief minister?” asked 36-year-old Sukhbir Singh, a carpenter from Sirhind city in Fatehgarh Sahib. “Many feel Channi was made a temporary chief minister so that the Congress could win the next elections for Sidhu to be the chief minister for next term.”

Like Channi, Singh is also a Ramdasi Dalit Sikh. But caste is not going to determine his voting preference, said the Class 12 graduate who spent a decade working in the Gulf. “Punjab has seen enough of Congress and Akali Dal,” he said. “That’s why my friends and I have decided to vote for the Aam Aadmi Party. It’s time to give them a chance as well.”

A two-party contest?

The main electoral battle this time, according to Kumar, will be between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. Both were relatively unscathed by the farmer protests that swept the state and ended only when the BJP-led Centre repealed the three farm laws that had triggered them in the first place.

Recent episodes of alleged sacrilege attempts at gurudwaras may have stoked Sikh religious sentiments ahead of the polls, but the farmer protests remain an important issue in the polls.

Amarinder Singh’s government had already announced Rs 5 lakh and a government job to the families of farmers who died in the protests. One of Channi’s first measures after taking charge was to implement this promise.

The protests have already put the BJP on the backfoot. The Shiromani Akali Dal, which was in alliance with the BJP when the laws were announced, is also in a spot. While the party left the alliance, it had initially issued a statement in favour of the laws, Kumar pointed out. A besieged BJP has now tied up with Amarinder Singh’s new party, the Punjab Lok Congress.

But the Congress’s main challenger, the Aam Aadmi Party, has its job cut out for it. Kumar pointed out that the party did not have a local Sikh face and relied on leaders from Delhi to campaign before the elections. It suggested that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wanted to govern Punjab through a “puppet”, said Kumar.

Despite the Aam Aadmi Party’s difficulties, it may not be smooth sailing for Channi and the Congress.

For instance, Channi, the PhD scholar, is facing the wrath of teachers in Punjab these days. A recent rally held by Channi in Sangrur was cut short as the police hauled away protesting teachers, many of them women, who had been unable to find jobs.

“Punjab is the only state which hasn’t implemented the seventh UGC [University Grants Commission] pay commission so far,” said Kumar. “Teachers have been protesting for months but the government isn’t addressing the issue. Teachers should be in classrooms and not on the streets.”