CHANDIGARH: By passing the chief minister’s baton to Charanjit Singh Channi, the Congress high command appears to be making attempts to win back the SC and OBC vote banks that drifted away from the party across the country over the years. If all goes well, Channi could be projected as the party’s Dalit face in polls elsewhere, too.
At 32%, Punjab has the highest SC population in the country. Add to that the 18% strength of the backward classes, and they form a sizeable vote bank. “With Navjot Singh Sidhu, a Jat Sikh, as Punjab Congress president, and an SC as chief minister, the Congress has taken a strategic call to play the caste card before the Assembly elections early next year,” a political observer said.
Political analyst Professor Ashutosh of Panjab University said, “The Congress is trying to send a message of identity and symbolism across all states, especially Uttar Pradesh where elections are due early next year along with Punjab. UP has a big SC vote bank. Uttarakhand, too, is poll-bound and has some SC population. The Congress is clearly trying try to bring the SC vote bank back.”
“As far as Punjab is concerned, it is good move and will keep the infighting under control,” he added.
Given the huge SC voter base in Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party combine has already promised to make a member of the community a deputy chief minister if voted to power.
As for the Aam Aadmi Party, it has given the post of the Leader of Opposition in Punjab to an SC, Harpal Singh Cheema, and promised the deputy CM’s post to the community if voted to power in the elections.
‘Cong show run by Gandhi siblings now’
Not to be left out, the BJP earlier promised chief ministership to an SC leader if voted to power. Besides, Som Parkash, a prominent SC leader from Punjab, is the Union minister of state for commerce and industry in the NDA government.
Another SC leader Vijay Sampla is the chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes with the rank of a Union minister. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi are together making a conscious effort behind the scene to bring back the traditional and significant vote bank of the Congress ahead of several state polls and 2024 LS elections.
The SC, tribals and minority communities were formidable votes bank of the Congress that kept the party in power for several decades, but the rise of regional outfits and the social engineering of Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine upset the ‘SC, ST and minority’ appeasement’ politics of the grand old party. The SCs shifted loyalty to a strong regional outfit like BSP in UP and RJD in Bihar while Prakash Ambedkar- led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi damaged the crumbling Congress further in Maharashtra.
Messaging for UP
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is in-charge of UP, is already trying to woo the SCs there. The Channi factor will send a positive message to the SCs in UP