Punjab elections 2022

Unexpected.

The results clearly show that AAP’s winning seats were unexpected and exceptionally well. No party in the history of the elections in Punjab won that many seats after 1966. The near number that we saw was in 1992 when the Congress won 87 seats.

Today, the Punjabis have shown how much tired they were from the main political parties – SAD and Congress. The results which are pouring in at the time of writing this shows the difference of the votes between the winning and trailing candidates, and the numbers were in thousands.

 

Every player lost, and results

You name it, Parkash Singh Badal, Captain Amrinder Singh, Sukhbir Singh Badal, Bikram Singh Majhitia, Navjot Singh Sindhu, Charanjit Singh Channi, Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, etc., every single one of them lost. Even the Sacha Sauda Dera couldn’t help the parties to win the elections.

The results of this elections clearly tell without the political knowledge you can’t win the elections. SSM had his players on the ground, but they couldn’t win any seats. In hindsight, one may figure protesting against the establishment and winning the elections are two different things. If SSM had some big politicians among them, or if they had shaken hands with a political party, as it’s conjectured but Balbir Singh Rajewal clarified it’s not the case, there might be some chances of winning. But they had nothing to show how they would transform the lives of people. In the case of AAP, they had the ‘Delhi Model’ to lure the public. It’s evident that SSM had no chance.

BJP, as I have written before the elections, had two key issues to speak on: Ram Mandir and the Hindu issues. The Hindu population of Punjab had shown that the Punjabi Hindus can see through the deceit and know what’s best for the state of Punjab. If we look at some of the other Indian States, we see the winning streak of BJP is due to the unnecessary Hindu-Muslim debates and issues. And Hindutva too. The news was there were some posters walled in the Punjab that the vote should be for Ram Mandir[1]. It was clearly to polarize the Punjabis on the ground of religions. But the Hindus saw through it. Punjab is the perfect example to show that you can’t get the votes by bringing only the religious issues, and there is no guarantee that a particular religion is going to vote for a particular party.

SAD. Sukhbir Singh Badal should step down from the presidency. If they don’t want to get wiped out from the political map of Punjab, they should allow a non-Badal to run the party and decide how they are going to revive this grand old party. The legacy of the party should survive. Badals’ contribution to the party or Punjab is negated by the decisions they’d made about their alliances and issues. SAD, which won 75 seats in 1997, got only 3 seats in 2022! Something went wrong down the road. It needs to be changed. They should look holistically about the betterment of the party and Punjab than their individual political careers.

Congress’ performance wasn’t as I’d expected. The decisions that Charanjit Singh Channi made during his small stint as the CM of Punjab weren’t good enough for the Punjabis. Many believe if the decision of changing the CM after Amarinder Singh’s resignation was made two years early the map of Congress’ winning seats would’ve been different. The CM himself lost his seats.

For AAP, it’s a different game. The results are in parallel with the General Elections of 2019 – the votes weren’t going for the candidates but Modi – similarly the votes in 2022 Punjab Assembly Elections weren’t for the individual candidates but AAP. Those candidates who didn’t have anything in the spectrum of politics won too because of the wave of AAP. That is, what I would call, a sheep wave.

 

What went wrong for SAD?

People have been blaming the Badals for the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib ji in 2015 and the firing on the protesting Sikhs. This was the biggest blow to the SAD. Although none of them have been in jail for this. But the general perception has been built on the social media about the involvement of Badals in these incidents during their government in Punjab.

Second is the decline of the Sikh Ethos among the members of the SAD. We don’t see them raising their voices on the panthis issues or the Punjab issues, which were the core things before Parkash Singh Badal turned the party into a secular one in 1996 Moga conclave.

One must remember the history of the Sikh Kingdom that the raaj was of Khalsa – the government was Sarkar-e-Khalsa – but still the rule was secular. You need not change the 100-year-old party’s ethos to lure the non-Sikhs. You can still be a Sikh political party working for all irrespective of their religions.

There have been ties with the core Hindu parties, political and non-political, which have been speaking against the Sikh struggle in 1980s-90s and paint the Sikh religion with their Hindu philosophy. This didn’t go well among the Sikhs. This issue has been raised by the non-political Sikhs for years, but nothing was changed. So, eventually, SAD leaders reaped what they sowed.

Third was the showcase of their contributions in the recent times. AAP was way ahead of the dissemination of what they have done in Delhi than SAD.

Fourth was no fruitful efforts were made to bring new industries in Punjab to generate new jobs. People have alleged that the Badals demanded a fair share if the industries wanted lands to open their plants in Punjab was the reason for no new industry in Punjab. These were some serious allegations that the SAD leaders need to answer.

Fifth was the no new faces at the top hierarchy. Someone should replace Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal. The Badal dynasty learned nothing from the Congress. They are in this situation because they kept everything within the family. SAD is not for Badal’s progenies. Those who can run the party efficiently should be the president. SAD (Sanyukt)’s president, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, has submitted his resignation, and asked Sukhbir Singh Badal to do the same.

With this crushing defeat, the Jathedar of Akal Takhat, Giani Harpreet Singh, asked all the SAD factions to come together at Akal Takhat for the future course. This is big. This is so big. If a plan has to be outlined, everyone should be onboarded, Badals should take the moral responsibility to step down from the top hierarchy, put combined efforted to come back in power with a bang. Giani Harpreet Singh said it beautifully:

Shromani Akali Dal isn’t a political party but a thought (soch). If that thought is alive, Shromani Akali Dal is alive. That’s why it’s very important to revive that thought.

I can bet if the SAD transforms into who it was, there won’t be any other political party that can make government in Punjab because the SAD will be walking on the path shown by the Gurus and work for all.

 

A long road for AAP

‘Give us a chance.’ That was the slogan by AAP.

You have gotten one.

We all heard the infrastructure of government schools in Delhi and AAP’s contribution to that. In Punjab, it might be a challenging thing for AAP as there are thousands of villages and the similar number of schools in cities and villages if not the same. How they will contribute to change that will be good to see.

Secondly, there should be industries brought into Punjab. It’s been long alleged that the industries didn’t come to Punjab because the Badals asked for partnership. Now, as AAP, a ‘good’ party, will be running the show, they should showcase how it’s done. And the industries shouldn’t be to do the minimal jobs but where the college pass-outs can earn good money. Of course, the land should be required for that, but it need not be with force, or bad decisions.

Thirdly, the drug and sacrilege issues in Punjab, which Kejriwal had ignored in his interview, should be resolved by AAP. Bikramjit Singh Majhithia is already going to court for the drug case. We will see how under AAP that case reaches its end results. In Ludhiana, there were big billboards of Captain Amarinder Singh when he was the CM of Punjab that how many criminals were put behind the bars or drug cases solved. Everybody knows the truth of that. AAP should avoid it.

During the 2017 Punjab Assembly Elections, the words were spread that if AAP won Punjab in 2017, Arvind Kejriwal would be the CM of Punjab as the CM of Delhi doesn’t quite have the powers to make the decisions because of its being a union territory. Similarly, people are assuming his wife or the Deputy CM of Delhi or some other person will become the CM of Punjab even when Bhagwant Mann is the chosen candidate. Maybe down the road, we will see how the events turn out to be. A full five years for Bhagwant Mann would shut all the mouths.

It should be noted that AAP being a state party was able to win another state. Some are willing to call it a national party. I wrote back in 2019 that the Sikh political parties try to move to other states to form the government. Here AAP seems to go in that direction, on the other hand Sikh political party like SAD lost its own state to the lowest assembly seats.

There are chances that the Deputy CM or Cabinet Ministers will have a share of Hindus in the AAP government in Punjab, so that AAP can prepare themselves for the next elections too. The recent killing of cows in Hoshiarpur might be used by some people to polarize the state. Only time will tell how these situations will be handled by the AAP government and if they are really a B team of BJP.

Punjabis have chosen their destiny for the next five years, let’s hope AAP won’t disappoint them.

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[1] “Jo Ram ko laaye hai hum unko laenge.” “Is baare vote sirf Ram Mandir ko.”