bhagwant mann | 43 aap cheers to cong: punjab pours a...
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JALALABADParkash Singh Badal | 89 yearsSAD | Lambi
The oldest CM in the country, Badal went into the hunt for a third straight term amid a drop in popularity ratings and questions about his govt's response to the drug scourge. AAP's entry into the fray and a resurgent Congress put him on a weak wicket
Amarinder Singh | 74Congress | Patiala
The Patiala royal and Punjab Congress chief had announced this would be the last election he fi ghts. The former CM quit his Amritsar Lok Sabha seat and took on Parkash Badal on his home turf in a contest, which was emblematic of the larger one for the state
Sukhbir Singh Badal | 54SADThe younger Badal was hands-on in all the key areas of administration. As deputy CM and SAD chief, led his party's bid to return to power
Bikram Singh Majithia | 41SAD | Majitha
Kejriwal had vowed to put him in jail if AAP came to power. Brother-in-law of Sukhbir Badal and a member of the infl uential Majithia clan, he was at the centre of the row over the drug menace in the state
Navjot Singh Sidhu | 53Congress | Amritsar East
Fuelled speculation in the run-up to the polls regarding his political choices; was courted by AAP before announcing he would join Congress. The cricketer-turned-TV personality & politician was in great demand as a star campaigner for Congress
Defeated RK Honey (BJP) by 42,809 votes
They drove the campaign & led the battle for votes. Here's how the big guns fared...
WonLost
&TOPS
FLOPS
Defeated Amarinder Singh (Cong) by 22,770 votes
Defeated Balbir Singh (AAP) by 52,407 votes
Defeated SR Singh (Cong) by 22,884 votes
Bhagwant Mann | 43 AAP AAP MP & comic-turned-neta faced his share of controversies & was even involved in a verbal spat with PM in the poll season as he took on Sukhbir Badal
Lambi
Won by 18,500 votes
Cheers To Cong: Punjab Pours A Patiala
Chandigarh: Congress registered a decisivewin in Punjab in a three-cornered fight on Sat-urday. But even as it secured 77 seats, the par-ty’s vote share took a dip. Congress swept seatsacross regions: 39 of the total 69 in Malwa, 15out of 23 in Doaba and 23 out of 25 in Majha.
“Congress did better than expected in Mal-wa, while it virtually swept the Dalit strong-hold of Doaba and the border region of Majha.A reasonable performance by SAD-BJP inMalwa ensured that AAP did not sweep the re-gion,” said a Congress functionary.
This, despite speculation at one stage thatAAP enjoyed more popularity in the Malwaregion going by the crowds at public meetingsof its star campaigner, Bhagwant Mann.
A strong state leadership under CaptainAmarinder Singh, who managed to douse in-fighting among party leaders, and less interfe-rence of the high command, contrary to thepractice in the past, also worked for Congress.
The party pulled off a surprise eventhough it garnered just 38.4% of votes thistime, which is almost 2% less than the 40.9% itgot in 2012. Even its own leaders expectedaround 65 seats.
In the previous election, while the partyhad managed to win only 46 seats, its voteshare had gone up from 40.11% in 2007. Despiteregistering an increase in vote share, Con-gress had failed to get a majority due to thedamage caused by the People’s Party of Pun-jab and the Bahujan Samaj Party in 2012. Ironically, though they spoilt Congress’s fortunes, the two parties failed to win anyseats themselves.
“The Congress campaign was meticulous-ly planned around party president CaptainAmarinder Singh and, in the last leg, the par-ty tried hard to consolidate its presence in theMalwa region. Doaba and Majha were itsstrength from the start,” said a party leader.
While Shiromani Akali Dal got 25.2% of votes, AAP managed to convince 23.8%ofthe electorate.
Interestingly, Singh and party’s star cam-paigner Navjot Singh Sidhu couldn’t see eye toeye until the ex-cricketer joined Congressbarely 15 days before the February 4 elections.On Saturday, the duo recorded two of the high-est victory margins in the state.
While Singh’s margin from Patiala Urbanwas 52,407 votes, Sidhu won Amritsar Eastseat by 42,809 votes. Though Sidhu was quickto scotch talks of being the deputy chief min-isterial pick, his decision to hold a press con-ference before Singh’s surprised everyone.
To his credit, Sidhu dedicated Congress'stellar tally to Singh and the Gandhi familyand said that he might have joined the Con-gress team late, but he played like a T20 bat-sman. “I know how to play a T20 and a Testmatch,” he said. "It is just the beginning. Con-gress will spread out from here." Sidhu held 36rallies in seven days across the state duringthe last days of the campaign.
Party gains seats,but loses vote share
ALL SMILES: Amarinder Singh’s daughter Jai InderKaur and grand-daughter Seherinder Kaur soak inthe accolades after the Congress victory
PTI
Vibhor Mohan & Rohan Dua TNN
New Delhi: Navjot Singh Sidhuon Saturday hurled beamers atthe Aam Aadmi Party, accusing itof creating a false “wave” throughpaid online “flunkies” on socialmedia. AAP dismissed the claimsof the former cricketer-turned-politician, saying he needed tospend more time with Congress tounderstand its nature.
“Ye jo social media ki afwaheinhain, ye jo Kejriwal saab apne kha-reede hue tattuon ki taraf se wavebanane ki koshish karte hain, ye jotrolls hain, aaj unki bhi bahut ba-di haar hui hai. Kyunki satya pra-tarit ho sakta hai, kabhi parajitnahin ho sakta (these social mediarumours, these waves that Mr Kej-riwal tries to project with his pur-chased flunkies, these trolls – to-
day they have lost hugely as well.Truth can be mistreated, not de-feated),” Sidhu said.
AAP’s social media head An-kit Lal told TOI over phone: “Jisparty ka campaign Prashant Kish-or ne kiya ho, ussey bada farjiwa-da nahin ho sakta (the party forwhich Prashant Kishor did thecampaign – there cannot be a big-ger fraudulence than that) Sidhusaab is still new in the Congress.He needs to spend more time withthe party to know it better.”
In the run-up to the elections,AAP and Congress had engagedin many a social media tiff. Partyleaders Arvind Kejriwal andAmarinder Singh engaged in awar of words, challenging eachother to win more votes. Last De-cember, Kejriwal and Singh trad-ed virtual punches.
After Singh questioned AAP’schoice of candidate from the Lam-bi constituency on Twitter, Kejri-wal asked him, “Sir, r u fightingagainst Prakash Badal ji or Sukh-bir Badal or Majithia or safeseat?”
On top, NavjotSingh hurlsbouncers
This is Amarinder’s win, not Rahul’s
(Gandhi) win➤ This is the victory of my faith and a New Year gift to Congress. My pagri (turban) was on the line➤ The school (of tactics) where Kejriwal comes from, I’m its principal
V-DAY SIDHUISMS
Chandigarh/Jalandhar: InMarch 2016, when a CVoter-Huff-post survey predicted a massivewin for AAP in the Punjab as-sembly polls, it gave the rookiepoliticians hope of finally be-coming a national party. Of the117 seats in the state assembly,the survey gave AAP between 94and 100 seats and people startedtalking about Arvind Kejriwalrepeating a Delhi in Punjab.
But a series of missteps en-sured that the party wins just 20seats one year down the line.AAP had got 24.5% votes in thestate in the 2014 Lok Sabha elec-tions and led in 34 assembly seg-ments. This time, its vote sharecame down to 23.9%.
Perhaps its biggest mistakewas the overreaction to Opposi-tion parties branding it as agathering of ‘outsiders’. In a des-perate bid to project themselvesas a Punjabi party, AAP leaderswent out of their way to win over
a major chunk of dera followerswho identify with AAP.
The ‘outsider’ allegationsstarted against AAP in early
2016 when it appointed non-Pun-jabis as observers in almost allconstituencies. In July 2016, theparty threw out one of its promi-nent Sikh faces, Sucha SinghChhotepur, after a flimsy stingoperation in which he was alleg-edly shown taking money. Thisadded to the growing resent-ment among volunteers. The ve-ry next month, AAP released itsyouth manifesto that had a pic-ture of the Golden Temple andthe ‘jhadu’ symbol on it on thefront page. AAP leader AshishKhetan even compared the man-ifesto to the Guru Granth Sahib.Instead of winning over Sikhs,these moves upset many ofthem.
To make matters worse, ofAAP’s four MPs in Punjab, onlyBhagwant Mann was activelycampaigning this time. Dha-ramvira Gandhi in Patiala andH S Khalsa in Fatehgarh Sahibhave been suspended from theparty while Prof Sadhu Singh inFaridkot was missing in action.
seats in the state, leaving the restfor Akalis. Deras’ call to backSAD may also have dentedAAP’s vote share as Dalits form
Sikhs, even prompting allega-tions that they were flirting withhardline groups.
Many observers feel thisalienated the urban Hindu pop-ulation, which has bitter memo-ries of the Khalistan militancydays of the mid-1980s and early1990s. Upset with the Akalis fortheir alleged misgovernanceand the virtual absence of BJPin large swathes of the state,many Punjabi Hindus were un-comfortable with AAP playingthe Sikh card so aggressively.
There is also a belief thatsome RSS-backed organisationsdiscreetly nudged their cadresto vote for Congress in a strate-gic attempt to keep AAP out ofpower. With the Akali-BJP alli-ance having no chance of com-ing to power, they preferred a‘limping’ Congress to an aggres-sive AAP.
Hindus constitute roughly38% of Punjab’s 2.8 crore pop-ulation, according to the 2011Census. BJP contested only 23
Flirting with hardliners cost AAP dearIt's mostly been a two-horse race in Punjab with either Congress or SAD having formed the govt after every election since 1967. AAP's entry made for an intriguing fight this time
THIRD WHEEL IN BIPARTISAN CONTEST
HalfwaySeatswon
Seatswon
Rulingparty
Firstrunner up
1967
1969
1972
1977
1980
1985
1992
1997
2002
2007
2012
2017
Cong
SAD
Cong
SAD
Cong
SAD
Cong
SAD
Cong
SAD
SAD
Cong
JAC
Cong
SAD
JNP
SAD
Cong
BSP
BJP
SAD
Cong
Cong
AAP
31
43
66
58
63
73
87
75
62
48
56
77
26
38
24
25
37
32
9
18
41
44
46
20
Robin David & I P Singh TNN
Amritsar:Majha played a vitalrole in the Congress victorywith the region electing 23 outof its 25 candidates. AAP, on theother hand, was left high anddry in all constituencies. BJPand Akali leaders who hadshifted loyalty to Congressahead of the polls won withhuge margins. The incumbentalliance got only two seats in theregion.
In 2012, Congress had won
just eight seats in Majha. TheSAD-BJP combine had pocket-ed 17. While the two sides werelocked in a neck and neck battlein the numerically-larger Mal-wa belt, it was the Majha set-back that had kept Congress onthe opposition benches.
Former BJP MP NavjotSingh Sidhu is now the Con-gress MLA from Amritsar Eastconstituency, earlier held by hiswife Navjot Kaur Sidhu. His ri-val and BJP's district presidentRajesh Honey couldn't match
up. Similarly, former SAD MLAfrom Amritsar South constitu-ency, Inderbir Singh Bolaria,who had shifted loyalty to Con-gress, won the seat by defeatingAAP’s Inderbir Singh Nijjar.
From the keenly-watchedMajitha assembly constituency,revenue minister BikramSingh Majithia defeated Con-gress’s Sukhjinder Raj SinghLalli Majithia by a margin of22,884 votes. AAP’s legal cellchairman Himmat Singh bare-ly managed 10,252 votes.
Majha gives maza to [email protected]
5SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, LUCKNOWMARCH 12, 2017 DANCE of DEMOCRACY | INSIDE PUNJAB