Punjab Gears up for its Toughest Assembly Elections Ever

Chandigarh: It's going to be a quick run-up to the most tightly fought elections in Punjab ever. Exactly a month from now, Punjab goes to the polls for 117 assembly seats in a single-phase election. It will be an agonising wait for the results though.

Along with Goa, Punjab will have to wait for a month and seven days after polling for the results to be declared on March 11.

A fluid situation for now with no party having a clear advantage, for the first time Punjab would have three major political groupings slugging it out. The SAD-BJP combine will face strong anti-incumbency after 10 years in power and this will be despite Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal sparing no opportunity to highlight a lengthy list of developmental activities carried out in the state. He will have to fight allegations of corruption, nepotism and a lingering allegation of not handling the drug abuse problem in Punjab efficiently.

Congress, on the other hand, is making a desperate all out bid to claw its way back to political relevance in Punjab. In a state where being in power can make all the difference to ensuring that financial and administrative muscle continues to be strengthened, 10 years of not calling the shots has weakened an already faction-ridden Congress.

The staid old party that relied on an alternating political party cycle in the state, took things for granted during the last elections in 2012, banking on an automatic victory. The SAD-BJP, also well aware of the cycle, spared no efforts in ensuring they beat it. And they did. Despite Congress on the whole garnering a higher vote share than the Akalis, a seat by seat plan executed by the Akalis, coupled with the BJP’s vote share, ensured it being back in the saddle for another five years.

Not wanting to take any chances this time round, Captain Amarinder Singh is defying his stereotyped image of a laid-back maharaja and actually spending a great deal of time crisscrossing Punjab to put his stamp of approval on several campaigns, addressing grievances highlighted by his advisory organisations, including Prashant Kishor’s IPAC.

The Aam Aadmi Party, many observers say has crossed its peak in the state. Its campaign and outreach started early in 2016. A few months into it, factions and rifts were out there for everyone to see, shattering the image of a tightly knit party with a common cause. This is a charge that is denied by party leaders, including Sanjay Singh, who says there is no question of the party going downhill. Unlike the Congress and the SAD-BJP combine, where the chief ministerial candidates are obvious, if not declared, AAP has almost laid to rest any possibility of declaring the Chief Ministerial candidate for Punjab before the polls, saying the CM face would be decided later from among the party MLAs. Capt Amarinder Singh says it is Arvind Kejriwal who is eyeing the post of CM in Punjab but does not want to run the risk of giving up his Delhi office for the sake of running an unsure race in Punjab.

Punjab is gearing up for a flurry of activity in the less than one month of campaign time available to the contenders. Navjot Sidhu will soon make his entry into the Congress camp, ready to unleash his one-liners as also former army chief General JJ Singh indicating a possibility of his contesting on an Akali ticket against Capt Amarinder Singh in Patiala. It will be a General versus Captain faceoff if that happens. Sukhbir Badal has already been promising fresh faces to try and stave off anti-incumbency to the extent he can.

Will Punjab see a hung Assembly in this tightly fought contest or will there be a clear winner? The complex dynamics of Punjab coupled with a triangular fight are too fluid for that clarity to emerge for now.