Capt Amarinder catapulted Congress from virtual doom to destiny

Tuesday, 05/03/2013

http://www.punjabnewsline.com/news/Capt-Amarinder-expresses-gratitude-to-party_-people-of-Punjab.html

CHANDIGARH: Now that he is no longer the Punjab Congress president, his critics may be out with daggers drawn against him and blaming him for every ill facing the party today. But the matter of fact remains that Amarinder Singh catapulted the Congress from virtual doom to the destiny. The credit goes to the ousted PCC president for ensuring that the party in Punjab not only remains so close within the striking distance from power, but also the largest in terms of vote percentage. No wonder it took such a long time for the party to take a decision to replace him as it was difficult to find a replacement who could at least be somewhere near his stature.

It will not be an exaggeration that had it not been for Amarinder, the Congress in Punjab would have met the same fate as that in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. He retrieved the party from a situation when its vote share had fallen to a meagre 26 per cent (in 1997 assembly elections) and the number of seats in the assembly had gone down to just 14 in a house of 117.

Amarinder took the reins of the party in 1998 when the Akalis supported by the Bhartiya Janata Party had stormed to power with a landslide victory. Those were the days when the peace was just returning to Punjab after an over a decade long period of terrorism that had cost the state over 35000 lives including a sitting Chief Minister. The tide was certainly against the Congress, particularly along the countryside.

Amarinder took upon himself the onerous task of rejuvenating and resurrecting the party that had virtually been pushed to the margins. An aggressive Akali Dal was doing everything to ensure the demise of the Congress by trying to exploit the mass sentiment against the party. The Akalis could not find a better situation than that when the party’s (Congress) vote share had plummeted to 26 per cent and number of seats gone down to 14.

Duly supported by the Congress president Ms Sonia Gandhi, with whom he had personal equation due to the long history of family ties, Amarinder led from the front. He mobilised the cadres and infused fresh life into the party. Known for his aggressive campaigning he toiled day and night to ensure that party not only stabilised but also stormed to power in 2002 assembly elections. The Congress won 62 seats and the vote share went from 26 per cent to 36 per cent, a substantial increase of ten per cent.

He governed the state well. Except for one wrong decision of sending the Akali stalwart Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Badal to jail, on corruption charges, his regime will always be remembered for many good things. Particularly for the daring decision to repeal all the previous water sharing treaties with the neighbouring states to save water for Punjab even at the risk of his own Chief Ministership.

Although he was not the party president in 2007 assembly elections as he was the Chief Minister, he again led an aggressive campaign. Some wrong distribution of seats owing to the compulsion of adjusting different sections within the party including the PCC president prevented the party from coming to power again. However, this time also Amarinder managed to increase the polling percentage from 36 to 41, a significant increase of 5 per cent. But it did not translate into the electoral victory for the party and the tally came down from 62 to 44.

After his loss in 2007 Amarinder was pushed to virtual oblivion with most of his trusted colleagues and confidantes deserting him. As the party felt his need he was appointed as the Chairman of the Campaign Committee for the party for 2009 parliamentary elections. He delivered well winning eight of the 13 seats. It was a substantial gain from three seats the party had in the previous house. Subsequently he was appointed the PCC president to lead the party for the crucial 2012 assembly elections. During the last leg of the campaign he was declared as the Chief Ministerial candidate. However, party lost.

The entire blame for the 2012 loss is wrongly being put on Amarinder. Like people using the expressions like “complacency”, “over confidence” and less hardwork. He could not have done better. Let us not forget that the 2012 elections were fought when the tide across the country was against the Congress and Punjab was the first state to go to polls after the Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement and the memories of 2-G scam were too fresh to be forgotten.

Despite that Amarinder led the party to get 40.1 per cent of votes, highest for any political party in Punjab. The Akali-BJP combine got just a fraction .8 per cent (rpt .8 per cent) more with 40.9 per cent vote share. What is being ignored and overlooked is the fact that Amarinder stabilised and consolidated the party in Punjab taking it to even the hardcore Akali belts. He has laid down firm foundation for the party for anyone to take off comfortably and conveniently. The popularity of a leader should not be judged by the number of assembly seats he delivers, but the number of people who follow him and Amarinder Singh definitely scores at that. He still remains the most popular face of Punjab.