CAN CHANNI DELIVER?

n the morning of September 20, Charanjit Singh Channi, 58, was sworn in as the 17th chief minister of Punjab, in the process making history as the first Dalit to occ upy the chair. He took oath along with two deputy CMs, prominent Jat Sikh leader Sukhjinder Randhawa and Om Prakash Soni, an upper caste Hindu businessman. It’s a big gamble the Congress is taking, trying to alter caste equations in the state. Since the 1966 state reorganisation, Punjab has always had a chief minister from the dominant Jat Sikh community (with the exception of Giani Zail Singh, an OBC Ramgarhia Sikh), and Channi’s big challenge