With Assembly election knocking at the doors of political parties, the season of political yatras has commenced in Punjab. Every party in the state is in yatra mode to reach out to the people with polls barely three months away.
Congress and the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) might have got a bit late in their canvassing through the yatras. But it was the Shiromani Akali Dal which began the mass contact programme in the state with the much touted Sangat Darshan a few months ago. A concept, the copyright of which is with the SAD, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal visits a village or a small town for the Sangat Darshan which is actually a public relations exercise to consolidate party’s core vote bank. He disburses funds, listens to the grievances of the people, summons officials and gets the work of people done on the spot. He also spent a few nights in the villages, obviously to connect to the common villagers and show that government has reached their doorstep.
Simultaneously, his son and Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal brought in the Kabaddi World Cup, a popular sport in this part of the country. Though the participating international teams might predominantly have expatriate Sikhs and Punjabis as team members, the extravaganza has caught the imagination of the people just ahead of the assembly polls. You could mainly find the surname “Singh” in teams of United States, Italy or Australia and they might have come here to visit their home state, rather than play Kabaddi, but the gatherings have been a perfect platform for Sukhbir to showcase to the people what the SAD-BJP government has done in the state in the last almost five years. Kabaddi has indeed turned into a political strategy in a state where flexing muscles is a part of political expression.
Congress cannot obviously sit and applaud. The party has launched its own “Punjab Bachao Yatra” to counter the Akalis and come back to power in the state. The “yatra” is in the form of rallies and public meetings in different parts of Punjab where the PCC chief and chief ministerial aspirant Captain Amarinder Singh, AICC in-charge of the state Gulchain Singh Charak and Leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal are the “star” campaigners. Local leaders, MLAs and MPs of the party have been taking part in the Yatra where Congress is challenging the Akalis with threats and even abuses. The Captain has successfully prevented Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Punjab to inaugurate the Khalsa Heritage Centre and this surely is a political feather in the cap of the Maharaja.
Then there is the Jan Chetna Yatra of BJP veteran LK Advani. Though, it is an all-India Yatra, Advani will spend 3 days in Punjab. The timing is crucial as it coincides with the intensive campaign which other parties have launched in the state. BJP has been struggling with its urban support base in recent months and the party leaders believe that the Yatra would help consolidate its support in the state and unite the warring leaders.
Another Yatri in the poll season of Punjab is Manpreet Badal, the nephew of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal who was expelled from the party last year and subsequently formed Peoples Party of Punjab. Manpreet has “Izzat Bachao Yatra” to bank on and has adopted the same modus operandi like the Congress. He is attacking the Badals day in and day out and there is nothing to choose between his PPP and the Congress. His Yatra might not draw the kind of support he is expecting but the Third Front nevertheless seems to be a reality with the formation of the Sanjha Morcha which comprises the Left parties. Bahujan Samaj Party is set to join this platform and this could upset the existing poll calculations of both the SAD-BJP combine and the Congress with around 31 per cent of the voters belonging to the dalit category.
If these Yatras were not enough, Baba Ramdev too has started his “Swabhiman Yatra” in the poll bound Punjab. He may not be aspiring for a political position as of now, but his sustained anti-Congress diatribe has rattled Punjab Congress. Reviving the plank of black money, money stashed in foreign banks and the “treachery” of the ruling party at the Centre, Baba’s yoga camp and the Swabhiman Yatra will only benefit the SAD-BJP combine. He hailed Kabaddi as a sport to get rid of drugs and also appreciated the Badals for organising the event. The Baba in fact got into a loin cloth, entered into the Kabaddi arena and participated in a game in Moga. With photos splashed all across, the message is not lost. All his activities in the run-up to the polls is intended to benefit the ruling alliance in the state by default.
Anna Hazare too has plans for Punjab. This is one untested political commodity which the Congress fears but cannot admit openly. The septuagenarian anti-graft crusader has threatened to hold a day long fast in Punjab and campaign against the Congress if the Jan Lokpal Bill is not passed in the Winter Session of Parliament. No one knows whether the crowd and the television cameras which Anna can generate will translate into votes. But he will grab the eyeballs and this is what has sent Congress on the backfoot. It is no longer a secret that Congress loathes him. You talk to any leader, big or small, from the party and they only have negative platitudes for Anna and his team.
Captain Amarinder Singh lobbied hard to prevent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from coming to Punjab to inaugurate an “Akali project” to prevent his rivals from benefiting in the assembly polls. He wrote letters to the PM and brought the issue in a meeting with party President Sonia Gandhi. I am not sure whether he would lobby for the passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Winter Session, lest Team Anna campaigns against Congress and affects his prospects of coming to power in the state.
The long and short of this is that Punjab is headed for a photo finish. I have not seen any survey, pre poll forecasts or psephology in play in the state in recent weeks. No one is sticking his or her neck out and say what will happen when people go out and press the buttons of the EVMs in February.
So what will be the poll issues? My guess is that it would be cocktail of local and national issues – the governance or lack of it (as the Congress and PPP alleges), rapid development of the state (as the Akali Dal claims), Jan Lok Pal Bill (as Team Anna would like us to believe), black money stashed abroad (Baba Ramdev) or corruption (Jan Chetna Yatra of Advani). Then obviously price rise, inflation, petrol price hike (middle class Punjabis love driving and they feel the pinch).
This cocktail is set to keep the pot boiling till the election result settles it. (November 6, 2011)
http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/18223-yatras-for-sangat-izzat-votes.html
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