Lull before the storm: How Punjab leaders are weathering it

While all eyes have been on Uttar Pradesh for the past fortnight, the wait for March 10 has been unsettling but also welcome for political leaders in Punjab.

Dhindsa, for one, used the respite for a check-up in Delhi for a problem with his spine. The 85-year-old former Akali Dal leader who fought in alliance with the BJP says he is very hopeful of a good performance. “We contested 15 seats in alliance with the BJP and Punjab Lok Congress (PLC). We believe at least five-six of our candidates are in a strong position, while we are in the fight in every seat. ”

PLC chief Amarinder Singh, on the contrary, remained largely out of sight. On Monday, he was in Delhi where he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Asked about the meeting, he said they had a “general discussion”.

Singh’s media team said he had been holding small, informal meetings with workers, but not on anything official or specific. “Polling agents have been assigned their duties for counting day and now all reactions will come after the results,” a party worker said.

Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, who led the party’s fightback from the front, has been the most active since polling day, remaining in the field, having lunch at local dhabas with party candidates and visiting religious shrines such as Kirtpur Sahib in Rupnagar district and Dera Roomi Wala in Bathinda district.

On Sunday, workers from across the state were at his Badal village home for a formal meeting over the results. Party spokesperson Daljeet Singh Cheema said, “We are sure of forming the government and hence the meetings.” On possible alliances, he said all would depend on the results.

With the Aam Aadmi Party seeing a good chance for itself, its state convenor Harpal Singh Cheema said Badal was trying desperately to keep his flock together. The party candidate from Dirba in Sangrur, Harpal Singh said: “Badal is visiting constituencies where he is expecting his candidates to win and is trying to make sure they remain with his party after the results. They are not sure about a majority and are thinking of an alliance with the BJP.”

He asserted that AAP will make a “clean sweep”, denouncing talk of a hung Assembly as “deliberate rumours”. “Opponents will have no chance to try for any option, A, B or C… We are sure of a majority and hence every one of our candidates has already visited their constituencies to thank the voters and our workers.”

As Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra landed in Jaipur on Monday, the AAP leader alleged the party was so unsure that it had “shifted many of its candidates to Rajasthan”.

While AAP CM face Bhagwant Mann did not visit his constituency Dhuri, his mother Harpal Kaur and sister Manpreet Kaur, who actively campaigned on his behalf, did the rounds. On Sunday, Harpal Kaur came to bless newly wed couples at a mass marriage organised by the Shri Bhola Sewa Samiti.

The Congress chief ministerial candidate and sitting CM, Charanjit Singh Channi, has largely been out of sight since a February 22 visit to a school in Chandigarh for the visually impaired children. On social media too he has been silent apart from a Shivratri greeting, and a post on a Punjab government helpline for students stuck in Ukraine.

Even fellow partyman and main rival Navjot Singh Sidhu has been uncharacteristically quiet, with his last public interaction being a post on Shivratri with pictures of a puja at his home.

In the Congress camp, the most high-profile event since February 20 has been the continuing ‘safai abhiyaan’ by Sandeep Jakhar, the nephew of former PPCC president Sunil Kumar Jakhar, in his constituency Abohar. Sandeep started it after Abohar was judged the third dirtiest town in India, and Jakhar noted how his nephew had continued it, “irrespective of elections”.

Sandeep Jakhar on Safai Abhiyan in Abohar on Saturday.

Jakhar, whose CM aspirations in the wake of Amarinder Singh’s exit had been scuttled in the Congress, added: “While most candidates and leaders found solace in visiting mandirs and gurdwaras, he (Sandeep) continued his crusade… Even his critics who called it a poll gimmick are dumbstruck.”

Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, a cousin of Sukhbir Singh Badal, was at his home in Badal village on Sunday. As his media team expressed confidence of a Congress win “as we worked only and only on development agenda and remained away from all controversies”, Manpreet refused to comment on allegations by Cabinet colleagues and candidates Amarinder Raja Warring and Harwinder Singh Laddi that he had sabotaged their election.

While the BJP is being given little chance due to farmer anger, former minister Surjeet Kumar Jyani, contesting from Fazilka, said he had got a good response from his area. “These days I am spending most of the time in my village house where people come to meet me and I too visit them. We do analysis on a regular basis on where I stand… It (March 10) will be positive for us.”