Chandigarh: A month ago, the appointment of former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi as Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief was considered a near-certainty. So much so that many aspirants for other posts in the PCC had started reaching out to him or his close associates to lobby for themselves.A month later, the appointment is yet to happen. The reason is the decision of the BJP to play a politically-smart move by appointing a Jat Sikh as its state unit chief, discarding a Hindu leader in the process. Compounding the Congress’s problem is the fact that the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) are seen to be inching towards a pre-poll tie-up and appointment of a non-Jat may lead to counter-consolidation of Jat-Hindu voters.While Dalits comprise almost 32% of the total voters in the state, it is the Jat Sikhs, much of them forming the backbone of the state’s agriculture sector, who are more politically muscled.Now, as the race to appoint the next president of Punjab PCC enters the last stretch, two names seem to hold an edge over the other aspirants – former Chief Minister and current Lok Sabha MP from Jalandhar Channi and former Deputy Chief Minister and Congress MP from Gurdaspur Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.Some other aspirants like Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Pratap Singh Bajwa are also said to be in the reckoning but the final fight may whittle down between Channi and Randhawa.A surprise choice could be former minister and MP Vijay Inder Singla, a Hindu, said to be extremely close to Rahul Gandhi. Also read: Two Arrested in Bhagwant Mann Video Forensic Case had NIA Links; Opposition Demands CBI ProbeWhile Channi is a Dalit leader, who, when he was anointed chief minister just four months before the 2022 Assembly elections, bypassing more seasoned leaders like Randhawa and Sunil Jakhar, who was still with the Congress then, has some sway among the numerically-superior Dalit community in the Doaba belt of Punjab, Randhawa is a Jat Sikh, a community which every party is trying to woo before next year’s Assembly elections.While there are indications that both Randhawa and Channi enjoy support among sitting Congress MLAs and state Congress leaders, a strong section among the Delhi-based leadership favours Randhawa, mainly because he is a Jat Sikh.These leaders, one of who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity, feel that with the BJP appointing Kewal Singh Dhillon, a Congressman-turned-BJP leader, who is also a Jat Sikh, as its state unit chief recently, the best foot forward for the grand old party would be to also lead with a Jat Sikh at the helm.“While Channi is currently the tallest Dalit leader in Punjab, he does not enjoy the support of majority of the local leaders, especially those not from the Dalit community. Moreover, appointing him as PCC chief may turn away the Jat Sikh voters. The BJP, which has been trying to get the support of the Hindu voters for years, has already sent out a strong message to the Sikhs by appointing a former Congressman, Kewal Dhillon, as state unit president, replacing a Hindu – Sunil Jakhar. In such a situation, we should not take a chance by appointing Channi. I am sure the leadership will do whatever is best for the party, especially since the current chief minister Bhagwant Mann is in trouble with the Akal Takht (the temporal seat of the Sikhs) over his anti-panthic actions,” said a senior Congress leader, who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity.Incidentally, when he was appointed chief minister after the ouster of Captain Amarinder Singh in 2021, Channi was supposed to bring the Dalit votes to the party. He failed miserably. Under his leadership, the party managed to win just 18 seats out of the total 117, with Channi losing with huge margins from both the seats he contested from – Bhadaur and Chamkaur Sahib. What made the losses worse was the fact that both seats were reserved seats. A Dalit chief minister losing from both his seats didn’t show Channi in good light. But, he managed to bounce back, winning the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Jalandhar (reserved) seat by a margin of over 1.50 lakh votes.In all this up and down, however, he managed to remain in the good grace of the first family of the Congress – the Gandhis.Also read: Punjab 2027: Congress Cannot Avoid the Channi QuestionOn the other hand, Randhawa was among the handful of Congress leaders who withstood the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) wave in the 2022 Assembly elections, winning from his Assembly seat with a slender margin.Thereafter, he won the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 general elections.Punjab Congress leaders say that Randhawa may be a better bet as opposed to Channi mainly because he is a Jat Sikh and, secondly, he has the ability to take everyone along. “But, both Rahul [Gandhi] ji and Priyanka [Gandhi-Vadra] ji used to like Channi very much, [that was] one reason [why] he was made chief minister after Captain Amarinder’s removal. And, we all know their writ runs in the party. But, we feel if Channi is appointed, we may be gifting this election to others on a platter. This is not to say that under [Sukhjinder] Randhawa, we are certain to win. It is a very difficult choice to make. Also, Channi has shown that he is not always a team player,” said another senior Congress leader.What also makes the Congress’s task difficult is the fact that if it appoints Randhawa as the PCC chief, it will have to replace Bajwa as LoP since both come from the Majha region of Punjab and are both Jat Sikhs.With time running out for the Congress to get its house in order, it is just a matter of days before the man who will lead the party in the next Assembly elections is named.