The Punjab Verdict
By Satinder Bains*
Chandigarh: Punjab has sprung a surprise in the 2022 assembly elections. The major political parties like Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that ruled the state for over six decades were made to pay for the false promises, bunglings and non-performance.
This was the election with a difference. There was only one issue — change the corrupt and inept politicians. It was the revenge of the common man or aam aadmi of Punjab. A clean sweep by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was expected much before the final results were declared due to the two important factors:
- There was a strong anti-incumbency against the Congress Government
- People of the State had not forgiven the SAD-BJP alliance which ruled the state for ten years and earned the ire of people due to the emergence of the mining and drug mafia
Still, the AAP surprised all with 92 seats in its basket in the 117-member Legislative Assembly. No political party in the history of Punjab could match this score. The SAD could manage only three seats, one went to its ally, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Congress Party was contained at 18 seats and the BJP lowered its performance with just two seats.
Punjab will be the first full-fledged state in the control of the AAP after the partially controlled state of Delhi. A shot in the arm for Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister!
Comedian turned politician Bhagwant Mann will now be the next Chief Minister of Punjab. He was a two-time Member of Parliament from Sangrur.
The traditional parties failed to withstand the strong undercurrent in favour of AAP across the state. People pushed the ‘Broom’ symbol without knowing the individual candidates. All political big guns including Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, five-time Chief Minister and SAD Chief Patron Parkash Singh Badal, two time Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, another former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, state president of the Congress Party, Navjot Singh Sidhu, former Deputy Chief Minister and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, and almost all cabinet ministers including high profile finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal fell like the pack of cards. Channi lost from both the seats of Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur, he contested.
Even the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha, an outfit floated by farmers who won the battle against three agriculture bills and Sanyukt Akali Dal headed by Rajya Sabha member and former SAD leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa failed to make any mark, majority of their candidates losing their deposits.
There is a background and several factors behind the building of the AAP wave in Punjab. People had a strong feeling of cheating by traditional parties and working together to remain in power.
The Congress Party was expecting to return to power despite infighting between senior leaders. The party changed the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh with the Dalit face, Charanjit Singh Channi, thus in the process ignoring the claim of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Navjot Singh Sidhu, who too had nurtured Chief Ministerial ambitions.
Thus the Congress banked on the support of 27 per cent of the Dalit population in the State. The SAD had formed an alliance with BSP to attract the Dalit voters. However, such arrangements failed to work for both parties.
The 100 days stint of Channi failed to overcome the anger of the people against Captain Amarinder Singh’s government. Even after Channi came to power, the activities of sand mining and the drug mafia continued unabated, causing distrust among the voters.
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The SAD which parted ways from the BJP on the issue of agriculture bills was also hopeful of forming the government. SAD had supported farmers’ agitation besides promising to eliminate mining and drug mafia which was indeed considered their own creation. Its president Sukhbir Badal and his brother-in-law Bikram Singh Majithia were blamed for patronising illegal mining and drug syndicates. The Badal family has also monopolised its control over transport business in the state during their regime from 2007 to 2017. It was also blamed for more than 100 incidents of sacrilege of holy Guru Granth Sahib during their rule besides using Sikh institutions such as Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) and the Akal Takht for political gains.
AAP entered the state at a time when people of the state were frustrated by traditional political parties. The Congress and the SAD-BJP alliance were ruling the state turn by turn and people were looking for a third alternative. AAP had contested the 2017 assembly elections as well and expected to win a majority, that it could not. In a bid to stop the AAP, the three political parties had reportedly joined hands and it is alleged SAD and BJP transferred their cadre votes to Congress under a secret pact to help the SAD-BJP alliance in 2017.
In 2017, the BJP, SAD and Congress together raised the issue of links of Arvind Kejriwal with the Khalistani elements. Following a bomb blast in Maur town two days before the polling, it is widely perceived that the BJP influenced the Hindu voters to vote for Congress in the name of national security.
The BJP and the Congress apparently tried the same gimmick this time too but it failed to trigger anti-AAP sentiment rather it seemed to have backfired.
Meanwhile, SAD was forced to break the alliance with the BJP due to pressure from farmer organisations. A message went around that the SAD and the BJP might go for a post-election alliance in 2022 which didn’t go well with the people. It is understood that it triggered distrust against the SAD and the BJP.
The AAP mainly focussed on two major areas of school education and health infrastructure which were in a poor state of affairs. The respective governments of SAD-BJP and Congress had failed to address the shortcomings of the education and health sectors. Government schools were working without teachers and hospitals had no doctors for years. These were other major issues in the elections and paid well to AAP as it successfully projected the Delhi model of Mohalla clinics and new school buildings.
Naming Bhagwant Mann as Chief Minister candidate gave a fillip to the AAP election campaign. Bhagwant Mann enjoys a public reputation as an upright and fighter leader. Punjab has seen a ray of hope in promises made by the AAP. People have given them five years and if they prove themselves, surely the future of traditional parties appears bleak here.
*The writer is a senior journalist and editor of punjabnewsexpress.com
