4 min readMay 31, 2026 04:35 PM IST If Punjab politics ever institutes a lifetime achievement award for being almost there, Sunil Jakhar would be a unanimous choice.The latest chapter came last week when the BJP replaced him as its Punjab president with Kewal Dhillon. For Jakhar watchers, it was deja vu. In the Congress, he was replaced as Leader of Opposition by Charanjit Singh Channi. Later, when he was heading the Punjab Congress, the party brought in Navjot Singh Sidhu as PPCC chief. Then came the biggest heartbreak of all. When Captain Amarinder Singh was shown the door in September 2021, Jakhar seemed destined for the Chief Minister’s chair. Then came the famous argument that Punjab needed a Sikh Chief Minister, and Channi took oath while Jakhar watched history unfold from the front row. Politics, they say, is about timing. Jakhar’s problem is that every time the music stops, there is always one more chair available, and each time for someone else. The tragedy is not that he never reached the top. It is …