Sunil Jakhar was not the flashy frontend but the brilliant backend

The IT geeks would understand there are two parts to website development viz. the front end and the backend. While the former is the part of a website that the user interacts with directly, the latter is the hodgepodge of chaotic yet orderly codes which is not seen by the users. An analogy as such is necessary when talking about the category of political leaders we have amongst us, especially when some high-profile exits have transpired in the last few days.

Reportedly on Thursday, Sunil Jakhar, senior Congress leader and former chief of its Punjab unit formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party days after he quit the Congress. The parting was acrimonious and Jakhar did not pull any punches trying to teach the Congress high command a lesson in trusting its workhorses.

And Jakhar was well within his rights to go on such a tirade. After all, he was the proverbial glue keeping the dilapidated state machinery of Congress together. While Congress had a plethora of front-end leaders in Navjot Singh Sidhu and Captain Amarinder Singh (at least before his departure) it was Sunil Jakhar in the backend keeping things running smoothly.

Sunil Jakhar – The Reliable Metronome

Leaders like Sunil Jakhar are akin to a metronome keeping the party ticking with the ugly, hard work behind the scenes. Their work is not fancy or worthy of the flashy newspaper headlines but pivotal to the party’s electoral fortune. If anything goes wrong in the backend, the frontend is rendered useless and the website falls apart. Nothing works. And this is exactly what happened in the case of Punjab Congress.

Jakhar was the worker bee who kept the organisation strong knit, even when internal tussles were at an all-time high. However, the moment his position was gifted to Sidhu, owing to the latter’s collusion with the Gandhi family – Punjab Congress fell apart.

For a long time, Congress was able to keep the opposition at bay because Sunil Jakhar knew the pulse of the ground like the back of his hand. Whenever Jakhar felt his party was wobbling, he dispatched his cadre workers to fix the problem so that the big, media-loving leaders did not have a dent in their popularity. Under him, Punjab Congress’ organisational structure was unrivalled and even election-winning machinery like BJP had a hard time competing with it.

Sunil Jakhar and BJP – A match made in heaven?

Sunil Jakhar, a three-time-MLA, and one-time MP, has never been seen as a mass leader but many see his entry into the BJP as a win-win for both sides. No backend leader is ever a mass leader but their importance to a party and its organizational setup cannot be understated.

Late Arun Jaitley never won an election for BJP and while he was a popular face, his real contribution to the party came behind the scenes. He was the party’s hard taskmaster keeping the cadre workers alert and plotting the strategies.

Sunil Jakhar is a Jat Hindu leader with a squeaky-clean image – something which the BJP will be over like a rash. Thus, it looks like a match made in heaven. By letting go off a leader with capabilities like Jakhar, Congress has once again shown that its high command has dropped the ball once again.

Why did Jakhar quit Congress?

As reported by TFI, Jakhar made the formal announcement of his departure public through Facebook live titled ‘Dil ki Baat’ from his Panchkula residence. In his 35-minute-long Facebook live, he took jibes at several Congress bigshots “sitting in Delhi”.

Least to say his main target was Rajya Sabha member Ambika Soni for her statement that the Congress should proceed with a Sikh face after ousting Captain Amarinder Singh from power. As until then, Jakhar was among the front-runners for the post of Chief Minister.

Jakhar mentioned his last words as, “Good luck and goodbye Congress” and called it his parting gift to the party. He discredited Congress’ brainstorming session in Udaipur and called it a mere “formality”. He also said that if party was really serious about its pathetic state in the nation, it would have organised ‘chintashivir’ instead of ‘chintanshivir’ and it would have been more about ‘worry’ than ‘introspection’.

Read More: “Goodluck and Goodbye Congress;” Sunil Jakhar’s statement says it all

Captain appreciates Sunil Jakhar joining BJP

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh took to Twitter to congratulate Sunil Jakhar for joining BJP and remarked that no honest leader could breathe in Congress anymore, “Right man in the right party. Congratulations to Sunil Jakhar for joining the BJP. Honest and upright leaders like him cannot breathe in the Congress anymore,

Captain understands the importance of Jakhar, for he was the brains behind his election as the CM for the second time

Sunil Jakhar had been associated with the Congress for the major part of his political career and yet he was ignored by the Congress top brass for being a Hindu leader in a Sikh-dominated region. BJP now has a goldmine at its hands. It needs to be seen how effectively the BJP top brass utilises it.