As the high-pitched election campaign for the Punjab assembly elections, slated for February 20, came to a halt on Friday, a narrative about bringing a change in Punjab appears to have been set - surrounding this tale, the Aam Aadmi Party seems to have an edge of perception over its rivals in the electoral battle, even as the Shiromani Akali Dal is well within the reckoning making it a tough battle for the ruling Congress to retain its government.
The electoral battle in Punjab is expected to be a three-cornered fight in most assembly constituencies between Congress, the SAD, and the AAP. However, the entry of the Bharatiya Janta Party-Punjab Lok Congress-Shiromani Akali Dal (Sankyukt) alliance, besides the debut of farmer unions under the banner of ‘Samyukt Samaj Morcha’ (SSM) - an amalgamation of 22 Punjab based farmer outfits that actively participated against Centre controversial farm laws - has left the political battle arena wide open to be anybody game.
The Congress party, which is facing anti-incumbency has bet its fortune surrounding the ‘Dalit’ politics this time. Appointing Chanranjit Singh Channi as Chief Minister, who become the first from the Scheduled Caste community to hold the top post in the State after the Congress cornered Amarinder Singh into resigning from CMs post clearly indicated the party’s strategy for 2022 assembly polls. The party later declared Mr. Channi as its chief ministerial candidate as well. Punjab has close to 32% population of the Scheduled Caste community, the highest in the country while Jat Sikh population is over 20%. But since 1977, the State has never seen a non-Jat Sikh Chief Minister - be it of the Congress party or the Shiromani Akali Dal, indicating the political dominance of the Jat Sikh community. Giani Zail Singh was the last non-Jat Sikh Chief Minister of Punjab between 1972-77.
