After weeks of intense campaigning, voting to all 117 Assembly seats in Punjab will take place in a single phase on Sunday, along with 59 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the third of the seven phases of polling in the latter State.
In the high-stakes battle for Punjab, the ruling Congress is trying hard to defend its turf; the Aam Admi Party (AAP) has emerged as the main challenger; the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is seeking to make a political comeback with a new alliance partner, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP); while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has tied up with former Chief Minister Captain (retd.) Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress.
The highlight of the third phase of voting in U.P. will be Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s debut in the Assembly polls from the Karhal Assembly seat. He is pitted against Union Minister and senior BJP leader, S. P. Baghel. While the previous phases saw Opposition parties raise issues such farmers’ anger, joblessness and price rise against the Yogi Adityanath government, the BJP has raised the issue of terrorism just ahead of the third phase.
But it is Punjab, where over 2.14 crore voters will decide the fate of 1,304 candidates in the fray, that witnessed the most high-pitched campaigns from political heavyweights like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Delhi Chief Minister Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, among others.
The AAP, with its emphasis on the “Delhi model of governance”, has emerged as the principal challenger but its poll pitch was queered by one of AAP’s founding members, Kumar Vishwas, who accused Mr. Kejriwal of hobnobbing with separatist elements and Khalistanis.
The comment has the potential to alienate the Hindu voters, who make up 38%-40% of Punjab’s electorate. While Mr. Modi referred to the AAP founding member’s statement at one of his election rallies, Mr. Gandhi asked the Delhi CM to answer in “yes or no” whether Mr. Vishwas was right in claiming that “he [Mr. Kejriwal] didn’t mind [being] the first Prime Minister of a breakaway nation”.
On Friday, Mr. Kejriwal, however, denied the allegations and accused all parties of ganging up against the AAP, sensing their own defeat.
The Congress, which had won 77 seats in the 2017 polls, is battling anti-incumbency over issues such the drug menace in the State, alleged corruption, handling of sacrilege cases, and inaction against the mining and transport mafia. In other words, the party faces the charge of not honouring its 2017 poll promises.
To make matters worse, the fight between Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Navjot Singh Sidhu became a regular feature ever since the party high command unseated Capt. Amarinder, and Mr. Channi became an accidental choice for the CM’s post.
Mr. Channi’s controversial statement that ‘bhaiyas’ from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi won’t be allowed to enter Punjab only added to Congress’ problems.
But the party is banking on support from the Scheduled Castes (SC), who make up nearly 33% of Punjab’s population, after giving the State its first Chief Minister from the SC community. It’s also trying to showcase decisions like the reduction in electricity tariffs and fuel prices taken during Mr. Channi’s 111-day tenure.
The stakes are also high for the Sukhbir Singh Badal-led SAD, as it is not only contesting the polls in an alliance with the BSP but also after severing ties with its oldest ally, the BJP, over the farm laws’ issue in 2020.
The BJP, on the other hand, with its alliance partners including the Amarinder Singh-led Punjab Lok Congress and the Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa-led SAD (Sanyukt), is asking the voters to go for a “double-engine” government to build a nawan (new) Punjab.
The Sanyukt Samaj Morcha, comprising various Punjab farmer bodies that had taken part in the protests against the Centre’s now repealed farm laws, is also a new player in the 2022 Assembly elections..
Prominent faces who are in the fray includes Mr. Channi, Mr. Sidhu, Capt. Amarinder, Mr. Badal, former CM Parkash Singh Badal, and the AAP’s chief ministerial face Bhagwant Mann.
U.P. polls third phase
In U.P., voting for the 59 Assembly constituencies will spread across 16 districts, with over 2.15 crore voters deciding the fate of 627 candidates in the fray.
The stakes are high for the BJP in this phase as the party had won 49 of the 59 seats during the 2017 Assembly polls and the SP managed only nine seats. The Congress had got one seat, while the BSP had drawn a blank.
Apart from the Karhal contest, where SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav campaigned for his son, Sunday’s voting also includes the Jaswantnagar seat, from where Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother, Shivpal Singh Yadav, is contesting.
Districts where polling will be held are Hathras, Firozabad, Etah, Kasganj, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur and Mahoba.
