Not named CM face of Punjab, Captain Amarinder makes tickets a prestige battle

His “inaccessibility” has cost the Congress two elections. So party poll strategist Prashant Kishor had fashioned his campaigns to ensure Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh was seen as “accessible” just like Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal who remains on the move holding sangat darshan programmes in assembly constituencies.
But Amarinder could cover just 34 constituencies under ‘Halke Vich Captain’ and a few more under ‘Coffee with Captain’ — where he sat on stage and interacted with youth, farmers and ex-servicemen. He started covering constituencies in whirlwind road shows after he resigned as Amritsar MP following Supreme Court’s ruling favouring Haryana in the Satluj-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal row.
But that was November-end. Ever since the screening committee of the Congress started its meetings at New Delhi in December first week, the entire action is in New Delhi. At a time the top leadership of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), including its chief Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia, are touring Punjab, Amarinder and his office are virtually functioning from Delhi, leaving it to the candidates announced by the party to fend for themselves.
Amarinder attributes the party’s defeat in 2012 assembly polls under his command to the “kin and loyalists” list of senior party leaders splaying a spoiler. This time round, he wants his complete say in ticket distribution. But rumblings within the Congress are growing stronger that Amarinder has made tickets a bigger prestige battle than the polls itself by leaving the party ‘leaderless” at a time the state is heading to elections in less than four weeks.