The elevation of Charanjit Singh Channi to the chief ministership, which was seen by many as the direct outcome of the internal rivalries in the Congress, failed to help the party retain the State. A majority of voters in Punjab rated his six-month tenure negatively. However, his predecessor Amarinder Singh’s tenure was rated far worse and it seems that Mr. Channi may have actually helped the Congress recover slightly in his short stint as the Chief Minister.
Brewing discontent
Comparing the two governments, as high as eight in every 10 voters were found dissatisfied with the four-and-a-half years of the Congress government led by Capt. Singh, with the anger waning a bit after Mr. Channi took over. The discontent remained strong with well over one in every two unhappy with Mr. Channi’s government as well (Table 1).
Indicating a strong anti-government sentiment in the State, over half (51%) of the voters and close to one-third (30%) of the traditional Congress supporters remained angry with both Capt. Singh and Mr. Channi. Among the four of every 10 traditional Congress supporters who were satisfied only with Mr. Channi’s performance and not Capt. Singh’s, only three-fifths (59%) voted for Congress while a quarter voted for AAP.
The anger against both Mr. Channi and Capt. Amarinder’s governments was found to be highest in Malwa, which was almost entirely swept by the AAP, with over three-fifths of the voters (61%) registering their dissatisfaction. In Maajha and Doaba, four out of every 10 and three out of every 10 respectively, registered their discontent against both the Congress CMs.
The Congress’ decision to project Mr. Channi as the CM candidate, however, was largely accepted by the voters of Punjab. While close to half of the electors (47%) felt the Congress did the right thing by choosing Mr. Channi over others, about a quarter (24%) held a contrary view. Looking only at the traditional Congress supporters, the decision to project Mr. Channi was applauded by over two-thirds (71%), and yet this did not translate much into votes.
Too little, too late
Soon after he took over as CM, Mr. Channi announced a slew of populist measures in order to counter AAP’s popularity. However, the post-poll data suggest that though it softened people’s anger towards Congress somewhat, it was just too little too late. Moreover, during this short window that Mr. Channi had, his government was not able to reach even one-third of the households in the State. Even among the ones they did, they still lagged behind AAP by a substantial margin (Table 2).
Manjesh Rana is a Research Associate at Lokniti-CSDS. Varun Goel is an Assistant Professor at LRDAV College at Jagraon, Punjab
