AAP MLAs pick Khaira as leader of Oppn in Punjab
CHANDIGARH: Facing flak for letting its Delhi team call the shots in Punjab elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) showed first signs of shunning the “high-command” culture when its legislators from Punjab were allowed to choose their leader.
The party’s 2o MLAs, in a meeting convened by national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal at New Delhi, unanimously conveyed the name of Bholath MLA Sukhpal Khaira to Kejriwal, who announced that all AAP legislators would like Khaira to lead them. The post had fallen vacant following the resignation of Supreme Court lawyer HS Phoolka as he could not fight cases of victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots owing to the post being an office of profit with cabinet rank and perks.
Khaira, the Congress-turned-AAP legislator, was among the three choices recommended by Phoolka to succeed him. He emerged as the party’s obvious pick as it needed a Jat-Sikh face. Khaira’s legislative experience also went in his favour. The other two names suggested by Phoolka --- Sunam MLA Aman Arora and Kharar MLA Kanwar Sandhu --- are first-timers.
Thanking the party, Khaira said, “My elevation to the post has proved that hardwork pays and not money, muscle-power and high-command culture.”
Khaira had been vociferous in demanding more say for state leaders in the party. He also had the backing of the AAP’s ally, Bains brothers of the Lok Insaf Party. Simarjeet Bains and Khaira were both expelled from last month’s budget session and have been working in tandem.
The social media-savvy politician, who was suspended for live streaming assembly proceedings during the session, announced his appointment by going live on Facebook.
POLITICAL INNINGS
Khaira started his political innings by losing the Bholath seat as a Congress candidate twice to former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) minister Bibi Jagir Kaur, a Badal loyalist and his bitter political rival. He won it the first time in 2007 but lost it in 2012 a third time to her.
However, Kaur could not be named as candidate by the SAD in 2017 polls following her conviction for being part of the conspiracy in murder of her daughter Harpreet Kaur in 2000.
Khaira had resigned as party’s chief whip in the assembly after his claim on the state presidency of AAP was overlooked for the controversial Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann who was also present at the meeting. Phoolka welcomed the collective decision of the AAP MLAs.
CHANDIGARH: He is a man with many epithets in Punjab politics. Aam Aadmi Party’s Sukhpal Khaira, the state’s new leader of opposition, is known as a ‘oneman demolition squad’, a ‘firebrand’, and even a ‘misguided missile’, as his attacks on the enemy camp can claim a casualty or two even within his own party.
The just-concluded budget session of the assembly was a trailer for the AAP that it needs to get its house in order as the main opposition party. It has not only to contend with the Congress that enjoys a brute majority and can literally flex its muscles if the need arises — AAP legislators were physically lifted out of the assembly by marshals in the last session — but also the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) that would lap up every opportunity to turn the tables on both the government and the AAP that has relegated it to the third slot after it ruled the state for two back-to-back terms.
Khaira’s appointment is good news for the AAP that is battling a credibility and leadership crisis in the state after losing the state polls. With an “absentee” state chief in Bhagwant Mann as state president, who also has the penchant for making headlines for the wrong reasons, the party needs a leader to launch no-holdsbarred offensives against both Congress and the SAD-BJP.
It is Khaira’s courage to take on the might of the government that has won him the crown. With old scores to settle with the Congress, especially with power minister Rana Gurjit Singh whom he sees as the reason for his alienation by Capt Amarinder Singh’s camp, Khaira can do what he does best — blow the lid off major scandals through access to government files and officialdom.
Against SAD president Sukhbir Badal and his brother-in-law Bikram Majithia, he has filed many cases and they too had unleashed state force on him when in power by dragging his name in a drug scandal. But no corruption charge has come to stick on him. Also, adversity can make strange friends, and a thaw in their ties is already visible.
The media-savvy leader, who takes the crown for holding a large number of press conferences to make sensational disclosures or issuing statements, will now have constitutional sanctity. He can be the crusader that the AAP needs.
His over-activism can keep both rival parties on their toes while helping the AAP find its feet in the assembly. He can finally take them on as the face of the AAP and not a leader caught in a battle of one-upmanship with the high command’s choice — as was the case between Khaira and his predecessor HS Phoolka.
Resurrected after being left out in the cold first in the Congress and then in the AAP, Khaira will have to fight his own demons, though. His biggest challenge will be to emerge as a team leader. Will he be able to tame his love for publicity, both on the ground and on social media? Remember, not everything is news.