[ad_1]
The Congress misplaced badly within the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to a second Narendra Modi wave within the nation, however there was a silver lining. This was from Punjab the place Captain Amarinder Singh as CM had overwhelmed all odds to ship eight out of 13 Lok Sabha seats within the state.
Inside three years of the identical, the Congress has misplaced Punjab with all its high leaders crashing to defeats. Captain, who was unceremoniously eliminated as Chief Minister 5 months in the past, misplaced from Patiala whereas contesting from his new get together. The Congress ‘Dalit trump card’ and Chief Ministerial face Charanjit Singh Channi misplaced from each the seats he contested and the state get together chief Navjot Singh Sidhu misplaced his seat. The get together dropped to a low of 18 seats and 23% vote share.
So how did the Congress get there? The solutions for a similar lie in what introduced the Congress to energy in 2017, a sequence of missteps by the Gandhi siblings and bitter infighting within the ranks which by no means ebbed.
Captain Amarinder Singh grew to become the CM promising two main issues to the folks – justice within the emotive 2015 sacrilege and police firing circumstances of Faridkot and resolving the drug menace within the state. He even took a vow on the holy e book of the Sikhs that he would ship on these points.
ALSO READ | Bhagwant Mann: Former Comic to Punjab’s Subsequent Chief Minister, Know Sangrur MP’s Journey
However folks’s endurance began operating out submit 2019 when Captain neither acted towards the Badals within the sacrilege-police firing circumstances nor towards Akali Dal chief Bikram Majithia within the drug circumstances. The Excessive Court docket’s transfer final yr to quash the SIT investigation within the former got here as a physique blow to the Captain authorities and dented its credibility. The Congress excessive command realised the identical and determined to interchange Captain simply 5 months earlier than the elections.
However because it proves now, this was a call left too late with the harm being already achieved. To make issues worse, the Gandhi siblings selected a comparatively unknown face in Charanjit Singh Channi because the CM as an alternative of Navjot Singh Sidhu who had rallied to get Captain eliminated on the dual problems with justice within the sacrilege and drug abuse circumstances. Channi was projected as a “Dalit trump card” in a state not identified for caste politics, exemplified finest by the BSP’s failure to develop in Punjab.
The end result was the chilly conflict between Sidhu and Captain turning into a chilly conflict between Sidhu and Channi with each leaders overtly taking potshots at one another and Sidhu in a match of rage even resigning because the state get together chief earlier than staying on with out a lot clarification for the change of coronary heart.
The get together couldn’t put up a united face on any event and issues grew to become worse after Rahul Gandhi in an surprising transfer declared Channi because the CM face forward of Sidhu.
Congress did this after being stumped by AAP in making Bhagwant Mann as its CM face. Congress which publicly stated earlier it could battle the election below the “collective management” and never declare a CM face, did a U-turn below AAP’s stress. The end result – a miffed Sidhu confined himself to his Amritsar (East) seat and didn’t step out to marketing campaign, whereas in the important thing Malwa area, none of Congress high faces like Sidhu, Sunil Jakhar or Partap Singh Bajwa campaigned.
Jakhar made issues worse for the Congress by saying that he was the bulk alternative of MLAs as CM when he was upstaged by Channi. Jakhar remark grew to become a supply of Sikh-Hindu politics in Punjab, which labored towards the get together. Jakhar additionally declared he was quitting politics within the midst of the marketing campaign. Congress leaders like Manish Tiwari had been excluded from the star campaigners’ listing as they had been perceived to be nearer to Captain Amarinder Singh.
Channi in 111 days within the chair might additional do nothing on the sacrilege-police firing circumstances, paving the way in which for the wipe-out of the Congress get together from the Malwa area and Aam Aadmi Celebration additionally made inroads into the Majha area which is named the Sikh Panthic base within the state.
Channi lastly did get an FIR lodged towards Majithia within the drug abuse case however once more this appeared a case of too little, too late because the folks’s thoughts was already made up by then to vote out the Congress.
Above all, the Congress defeat in Punjab can also be a case of a deep craving within the state for “change” and folks purchased the dream of corruption-free governance and alter of system as promised by Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann.
Whereas many in Punjab had been important of the Congress and Akali Dal, the actual anger within the state was towards the “system” and the sensation that Congress and Akali Dal had been hand-in-glove to guard one another’s pursuits whereas in energy.
The AAP promised to smash this “system and collusion” and act towards unlawful sand mining mafia, unlawful transport mafia and create jobs within the state by brining in business. Bhagwant Mann’s phrases that he would create jobs in Punjab to cease each second youth within the state from giving the IELTS examination and migrate to Canada, struck a chord.
The craving for ‘change’ was so sturdy that even the farmer agitation had no affect regardless of the Congress backing the farmers totally.
One couldn’t assist however discover an all-pervasive sense of unhappiness within the state amongst folks when News18.com travelled extensively in the course of the marketing campaign. This was a state the place folks had given up hope within the political class to unravel their issues or enhance their lives and the youth thought it was higher to go away for overseas shores with the fields being tilled by migrant labourers from different states.
The AAP got here as a giant beacon of hope with its ‘Rangla Punjab’ mannequin, which Punjabis at the moment are trying ahead to from Mann and Kejriwal.
Learn all minute-by-minute information updates for Uttar Pradesh election outcomes 2022, Punjab election outcomes 2022, Uttarakhand election outcomes 2022, Manipur election outcomes 2022, and Goa election outcomes 2022.
Click on right here for seat-wise LIVE end result updates.
[ad_2]
Source link
