Dark horse?

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Dark horse?

Wednesday, 16 February 2022 | Pioneer

Dark horse?

Amid churning in parties, there’s a real possibility of a surprise winner in Punjab

As Punjab gears up to vote for its 117-member Assembly in a single phase on Sunday, February 20, the electoral chips of the bigger, national parties appear to be on the downswing. While the BJP has for the most part been a junior partner in the State to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and it’s virtually the first time that it is testing the political waters there on its own strength, it doesn’t seem to be making as big a splash as was expected. The other national party, the Congress, had barely been able to recover from the exit of its former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh from the party than its incumbent Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s name was dragged in a case involving his family members accruing pecuniary gains by virtue of being able to influence the Government apparatus. In the latest blow to the ‘grand old party’, its senior leader and the Union Law Minister in the Manmohan Singh Government, Ashwani Kumar resigned from the Congress in the midst of the election cycle, saying the party had lost touch with ground reality and no longer reflected the national mood.

Hours after resigning from the Congress, the 69-year-old former Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab — who has had a 46-year-long association with the Congress — threw his weight behind the AAP and virtually endorsed the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, which is for the first time staking a serious claim to power in Punjab. Ashwani Kumar claimed that the AAP was on course to win the Punjab Assembly election, going even as far as to say that there was “a wave” in its favour across Punjab. He said that even on seats where nobody had heard the name of the AAP candidate, there was a perceptible wave for the party and people were talking only about jhaadu. According to several reports, the AAP candidates are getting unprecedented support in rural areas, once the strongholds of the SAD and the Congress. Meanwhile, the BJP and the Congress continue to be at each other’s throat. As PM Narendra Modi addressed his first physical rally in poll-bound Punjab, Channi claimed that his chopper was denied permission to take off twice during the day due to flying restrictions imposed during the PM’s visit. Of course, it remains to be seen how impactful would the BJP’s big guns be in the border State.

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