Sources in Congress said that Channi has been counting big on the Dalit factor. (File) Even in the face of most exit polls Monday favouring the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for winning Punjab, the incumbent Congress seemed unfazed as party leaders said they were sure of retaining power in the border state. Congress leaders said they were hoping of a Dalit consolidation behind CM Charanjit Singh Channi, adding that the only thing the exit polls pointed to was voters wanting a decisive mandate.
Channi, who has been holding meetings with his Cabinet colleagues lately, is learnt to have told them that the party was coming back in power.
After the exit polls, Channi, who had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Monday to take up the issue of tweaking of rules of appointment in Bhakra Beas Management Board, told reporters to wait till the day of the results. “The fate is in the boxes. Let them open on March 10,” he said.
Former PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar also said people should wait for three more days. “Picture will be clear by then,” he said.
Sources in Congress said that Channi has been counting big on the Dalit factor.
“Not only Channi but the Congress party is counting on SC votes that the party belives have consolidated after the party named Channi as CM candidate. I am sure no exit poll would have factored in these votes being polled en masse,” a Congress leader said. Punjab has maximum number of SCs in the country having a population percentage of 32.5 per cent.
Another party leader said that they have been saying from day one that the Punjab voters would give a decisive mandate.
“Most exit polls have pointed towards that. We have been discussing that the state voters have voted for a ‘C’. Either this ‘C’ will be Channi or for ‘change’, which means AAP,” he said.
The leader added that if SC votes have not gone in favour of Congress’s decision to make Channi the CM face then it would be AAP that would get a decisive mandate.
On former CM Amarinder Singh holding a meeting with Amit Shah and saying that the NDA alliance had done well in Punjab elections, a Congress leader said, “It is not going to be a hung house. BJP and Amarinder Singh come into picture only if no political party gets complete majority. That is not going to happen,” said a party leader.
He, however, added, “The Congress had been internally thinking that if it would be a fractured mandate then the BJP would use all means to form the government in the state. Chandigarh MC is a case in point. AAP was the largest party there, but BJP installed its Mayor,” he said.
Interestingly, while Channi and Jakhar have reacted on exit polls, PPCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu has remained silent. Sidhu, meanwhile, resumed his duties as PCC chief after elections on Monday. He held a meeting with his colleagues and asked them to start a party membership drive.
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