PUNJAB RESULTS-2012
Amitabh Shukla /Chandigarh
Reversing a historical trend and riding a pro-incumbency and development wave, the Akali Dal-BJP alliance has retained power in
“The credit of victory goes to the people of
The SAD-BJP alliance got exactly the same number of seats as it did in the 2007 polls — 68. However, tally of SAD increased from 49 last time to 56 while that of the BJP came down from 19 to 12. The Congress increased its tally from 44 to 46.
A major political casualty of the SAD-BJP Punjab hurricane was Manpreet Badal’s Punjab People’s Party, which failed to open its account even though it secured over 5 per cent of votes. Manpreet himself came third in the two seats he contested and his father Gurdas Badal was no match for elder brother Parkash in Lambi.
A meeting of the Akali Dal legislature party would be held in
On the other hand, Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh took responsibility for the defeat and congratulated SAD leadership on their victory. The Captain, who was anointed the chief ministerial candidate by Rahul Gandhi, said the party would introspect into its poor showing.
The record turnout of 78.67 per cent on January 30 reposed faith in the development agenda of the SAD-BJP. It has negated the theory that high turnout means anti-incumbency. The Atta-Dal scheme of the State Government, bicycles for girl students, new slabs of power subsidy, building infrastructure like roads and power generation projects and catering to almost all sections of the population in the run-up to the polls, helped its cause. Panthic agenda was kept aside as the entire campaign of SAD focused on positive issues like livelihood, employment, development, infrastructure creation and investment.
The over confidence of Congress also did the party in. In his political rallies, the Captain kept on announcing what he would do after the party is voted to power after March 6 and how the Akalis would be targeted for their "acts of omission and commission". The voters did not like the arrogance and taking them for granted. Probably in Punjabi Culture political swagger has got replaced by humility, which Parkash Singh Badal exuded in plenty during the campaign.
Congress rebels in almost two dozen seats, anti-incumbency of almost eight years of UPA rule at the Centre, over dependence on one leader — Amarinder — too proved to be factors. Aggressive campaigning of Amarinder, something similar to what Rahul Gandhi did in Uttar Pradesh as compared to the suave and humble campaign of the father and son duo of senior Badal and Sukhbir was too apparent for the voters. They judged and then took a call.
In Doaba, having the largest concentration of Dalit population, Congress was expected to do well but the Bahujan Samaj Party managed to cut into its traditional Dalit votes and in several constituencies here, the combined votes of Congress and BSP was more than the SAD-BJP candidates.
The BJP could have come down to 12 seats from 19 it won in the 2007 polls, but it was much better than 3 which it had won in the 2002 polls, indicating that anti-incumbency was not a factor even in the urban areas where the party has its stronghold. BJP, more or less, held on to its strength, particularly in Majha region, and prevented Congress from winning in the urban areas.
In Malwa, where the Congress did remarkably well in 2007 polls due to the direct support extended by the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda. But this time, the party could not repeat it. The Dera refused to openly support Congress and instead extended support to "good candidates" of both parties and the advantage of Congress was lost so much so that even the son of Capt Amarinder, Raninder Singh lost from Samana. (March 7, 2012)
http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/48038-anti-cong-mood-engulfs-india.html
No comments:
Post a Comment