BATHINDA: With the 2022 elections different from all other Punjab polls since 1966, the border state is ready for a new political script. After 55 years of bipolar contests where two sides played the government alternately (2012 being an exception when the Shiromani Akali Dal retained power), 2022 was the state's first multi-cornered contests where the hegemony of traditional parties Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal seemed threatened.
Public anger due to unemployment, drug addiction, educational decline and unaffordability, ailing healthcare, and farmers' unrest made it a tough campaign for the long-running parties, who found it hard to explain the systemic failure. After the farmer unions fought off the central government and forced it to repeal three agri-marking laws, they started asking the politicians about their roadmap for Punjab. Tangled in a Catch-22 situation, the parties revised their strategies to include more freebies.
