Dalit dynamics, shadow of farmers’ stir in border state Punjab

There are many firsts in the assembly polls in Punjab. The state’s first Dalit Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi is seeking a re-election. The Shiromani Akali Dal has for the first time entered into an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party for any assembly polls. The Bharatiya Janata Party is contesting the state assembly polls for the first time as a senior partner in alliance with the Punjab Lok Congress floated by Captain Amarinder Singh, who had defeated the saffron party’s veteran Arun Jaitley in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, led the Congress Government in the State since March 2017, but was forced to quit the office of the Chief Minister and the party in September 2021.

Also a key factor in assembly polls in Punjab are the three contentious farm laws, which triggered a year-long agitation by the farmers. The laws now finally stand withdrawn but only after having muddled the election landscape of the border state.

The BJP’s nearly two-and-a-half decade old ally SAD quit the NDA in 2020 soon after the farmers launched the protest against the new agricultural laws and had sought a new partner in the BSP.

Also read: BJP releases poll manifesto, promises 75 per cent reservation to Punjab youth in govt jobs

The forlorn BJP resultantly latched on to Captain Amarinder Singh’s new outfit. Two farmer bodies – Sanyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM) and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa-led Sanyukt Sangharsh Party (SSP) – are also contesting polls. A five corner contest could result in a lot of gerrymandering at the time of government formation after the polls.

Apart from Channi (58) and Amarinder Singh (79), two other former Chief Ministers are in the fray – Parkash Singh Badal (94) and Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (76). While five-term Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has ruled himself out of the race to the top office and instead projected his son Sukhbir Badal as a contender, Bhattal is out of reckoning. Amrinder Singh’s party is unlikely to notch up the numbers to be in the game.

Channi, the Accidental Chief Minister’, has been named as the CM candidate by the Congress. But he encounters tough challenges in edging out Navjot Sidhu, who for the time grudgingly accepted Rahul Gandhi’s choice for the party’s CM face.

Well, with just about week left for Punjab polls, the BJP is running its campaign with the “Naya Punjab Bhajpa De Naal” (New Punjab with BJP) slogan while the AAP’s tag-line is “Hun Nhi Khavange Dhokha, Kejriwal Te Bhagwant Mann Nu Devange Mauka’ (We will not get cheated this time, we will give a chance to Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann). While the opposition parties are harping on the need of “change”, the ruling Congress claims it has not only already effected a change by replacing Captain Amarinder Singh with a new face, but created a history by appointing Channi as the new CM.

Also Read | A heady cocktail of caste, religion and nationalism in Punjab polls

Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal and daughter Harshita Kejriwal are campaigning for Mann, as the AAP supremo promised a Delhi model of governance in Punjab, promising electricity doles and ending corruption.

He is repeatedly reminding voters that the Congress ruled Punjab for 26 years and the SAD for 19 years and asking them to give AAP a chance. In January, the AAP emerged as the single largest party in Chandigarh municipal polls, a development that has given wing to its dreams.

The Congress is campaigning with the “#111 Congress Dubara” theme highlgting the works of its first Dalit CM in 111 days to seek a longer mandate in the polls. The SAD, which had in 2017 given the slogan ‘Raj Karaangey Puchhees Saal’ (we will rule for 25 years) but lost the polls, is now hard-selling the “old is gold” idea as it completes 100 years of its formation with slogan ‘100 saal vikas de, vishwas de’. It fielded the 94-year-old senior Badal. The change that Akali Dal has sought to bring is giving one fourth of seats to newcomers in this poll.

In this cacophony of slogans and personality clashes issues like the drug problem of Punjab has somewhat relegated to background with the noise now mainly confined in Amritsar East constituency, where Congress chief Navjot Siingh Sidhu is locked in a direct contest with SAD’s Bikram Singh Majithia, who was given reprieve from arrest in the drug case till February 23.

Also read | No holds barred: Fight for Punjab hits below the belt

In 2017 polls, Rahul Gandhi had gone in a campaign mode against the BJP-SAD government on the drug menace in Punjab, claiming that 70 per cent youths of Punjab are in the net of drug addiction. His allegation had kicked up a row.

A report by Punjab Election Watch brought out that 695 candidates have declared their educational qualification between Class 5 and 12 in the state while 25 candidates have criminal cases against them.

The Congress, which had secured 38.5 per cent votes in the last assembly polls, is trying hard to maintain it, while the AAP is clearly hoping to revive its fortunes from nearly 24 per cent votes it had got in 2017. Much of the SAD’s gains due to a tie up with BSP appear neutralised with Congress promoting a Dalit from Punjab for the top seat. It is however a tall task for the BJP, which had only 5.5 per cent votes in the last polls.

Well aware of the limitations of this alliance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to reorient the narrative of Punjab polls beyond social coalitions to the issue of national security and the need for a strong leadership in the border state.

Modi will be carpet bombing the state with one rally in each of three regions of Malwa, Doaba and Majha on February 14, 16 and 17 and one the venues is Pathankot, where an air force station was attacked by terrorists in 2016, killing seven security personnel.

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