Punjab Key Candidates

He is the first Dalit chief minister of Punjab and the chief ministerial candidate of the Congress for the state polls. Channi was the surprise choice of the Congress for the chief minister’s post after Capt Amarinder Singh’s unceremonious exit in September last year. A three-time MLA from Chamkaur Sahib, Channi hit the ground running. During his 111-day stint, he not only used the levers of power to make populist announcements, but also kept invoking his “humble beginnings” to build support for the party among the Scheduled Caste voters, who make up 32% of the state’s three crore population, and the poor. Besides his stronghold of Chamkaur Sahib, from where he has won three successive elections, the Congress has also fielded Channi from a second seat, Bhadaur, to counter the increasing influence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Malwa region. However, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on his nephew that yielded crores in cash last month have been a setback for the Congress leader whose rise, from a councilor to the chief minister’s post, has been meteoric.