Chandigarh: Rajat Sood, an industrialist from Ludhiana, Punjab’s largest city, is not keen to experiment with his vote in this election. Taking a dig at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he says he is not happy with the party’s unnecessary focus on ‘freebie politics’.
“It is the industry that suffers most when the government makes unproductive use of taxes,” he said.
Rahul Verma, another businessman from Ludhiana, is also unimpressed with AAP, saying that the party’s selection of candidates was poor in Ludhiana city.
Ram Pratap, former president of the Ludhiana hosiery workers union, has a different take. AAP is in a close contest in all seats in Ludhiana and Pratap says that since the city has a sizable population of migrant voters, AAP candidates are benefiting from Congress chief ministerial candidate Charanjit Singh Channi’s pejorative ‘UP, Bihar ke bhaiye’ remark.
Manoj Das, a banker from the same city, says that while AAP’s slogan is catchy, in the end it is the candidate who is important.
Planning to vote NOTA (‘none of the above’; an option that enables voters not to vote for any candidate), he says he is disappointed by the candidates fielded by most parties, leaving him confused. “I am unable to make up my mind,” he said
While rural Punjab is vocal about its demand for ‘badlav‘ (change), which many believe is going in favour of AAP, urban voters appear divided.
Also read: Is It the Anger Against Traditional Parties That Is Pushing AAP in Punjab?
Of the state’s 117 assembly constituencies, 32-35 are purely urban, where the business community and factory labourers, who are predominantly Hindus, impact the outcome most.
In the past, Punjab’s trading class has vacillated between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress. This time, however, there has been a serious effort by AAP supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, to secure the votes of this section.
Kejriwal held road shows in Amritsar on February 14, Ludhiana and Jalandhar on February 16, and ended his poll campaign in Punjab on February 18 with an impressive show in Abohar, another urban seat. Even the Amritsar mayor joined the AAP two days ago, in a major jolt to the Congress.
In a press conference in Ludhiana, he even requested Punjab’s trading class to give AAP a chance, giving the example of Delhi where he claimed that the capital’s trading community, which earlier supported either the Congress or the BJP, has been with AAP for the last seven years due to the parties good policies.
However, no one party has been emerging as a clear frontrunner in Punjab’s cities.
The situation becomes further complicated with the BJP, which has predominantly been an urban voters’ party in Punjab, gaining ground after a series of big rallies by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Businessman and BJP supported from Ludhiana Bobby Jindal told The Wire that the BJP is now in the running for at least three seats in Ludhiana, after Modi’s rallies.
He said people in Punjab have not been averse to the BJP in the past; it is just that the farmers’ protest created resentment against the party. But, according to him, the BJP has done well by giving Sikhs huge political representation within the party in Punjab.
“The situation would have been different for the BJP in Punjab if it had fought the 2017 elections independently. It would have ruled out Navjot Singh Sidhu leaving the party as well, who basically left the BJP because of the party’s alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD),” Jindal said.
Also read: Ten Constituencies to Watch Out For as Punjab Votes
The situation is perplexing in other big cities too. For instance, a journalist with an English daily in Amritsar city (which has a total of five assembly constituencies) told The Wire that there is no clear wave for any particular party in the city; the support base is divided. There is a close contest in some seats and who will win can’t be known until the ballot boxes are opened on counting day, March 10.
Vineet Arora, a local trader from Amritsar, said that AAP appears to be in a winning position in no more than one or two seats in Amritsar city.
“There is no reason per se, except there is no acceptability of the party as of now among urban voters,” he added
Well-known Amritsar trader B.K. Bajaj, who deals in the import and export of dry fruits, told The Wire that he has been voting in the city for the last 50 years, but has never seen such confusion. In every seat, there is at least a triangular contest. Which way the election will swing is difficult to predict, he said.
Jamshid Khan, a political expert from Punjabi University, Patiala, told The Wire that for any party to form government in Punjab, it must perform well in both the urban and rural segments.
If there is a hung house, one can’t predict who will form the government. In 1967, the Akali Dal got just 24 seats while Congress had 48 seats. But all opposition parties came together and formed an anti-Congress government
Former BBC reporter Aarish Chhabra told The Wire that the entire election in Punjab has come down to the preference of urban voters. The villages have, more or less, consolidated behind the idea of a nava tajarba (new experiment). The situation, therefore, is very interesting.