SAD humbles Congress in Moga

Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh

It has been a prolonged victory spree for the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab with the party crushing the Congress in the Moga by-election reaffirming its credentials as an election winning juggernaut.

The victory by a margin of 18,849 votes is all the more sweeter for SAD as the entire state Congress leadership practically camped in Moga during campaign and the party was banking on a favourable result for its revival in the State before the Lok Sabha elections next year. Congress also pitched Moga as a referendum on the policies of the year-old State government in the second term.

As the victorious Akali candidate, Joginder Pal Jain, was elected on a Congerss ticket in the 2012 polls, had resigned his seat, joined the ruling SAD and contested again, the results could motivate others and hasten the exodus of Congress leaders towards the ruling party in the State. This could further demoralise Congress cadres and PCC president Capt Amarinder Singh could see a renewed and strong challenge to his position, already weakened after successive defeats.

Moga follows the victory of the Akali Dal in the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee polls earlier this year. In March 2012, the SAD-BJP alliance had created history by becoming the first incumbent government to win an Assembly election in Punjab in 44 years.

While Deputy Chief Minister and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal led from the front, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal proved to be the guiding force and a reassurance for the voters that their interests would be safe in the hands of the 85-year veteran of many a political battle.

“It is a forceful mandate for the agenda of peace, development and communal harmony, and a victory of clean politics over negative tactics such as mudslinging, character assassination and issue-less policies. The problem with the Congress is that it has no agenda except Akali bashing,” the Chief Minister said after the victory.

A defensive Capt Amarinder took the line which defeated parties often do alleging that “the verdict was manipulated and manufactured by the Akalis by blatant abuse of money, muscle, police and official power.” He maintained that “the outcome of the by-election is no reflector of the popularity of the government.”

Being credited with the induction of Jain and the victory, Sukhbir remained humble terming the bye election as a “referendum on the progressive policies of SAD-BJP alliance.” He saw the result as a “farewell chapter” in the electoral history of Congress and as a warm-up exercise for Akali cadre and trailer for 2014 Lok Sabha election.

So strong was the Akali wave that the label of “turncoat” on Jain for being a party hopper and ditching the voters within a year of being elected, failed to stick as he won by a bigger margin than 2012. Congress plank of law and order collapsed as the plank of development of the Akalis got the approval in both urban as well as rural areas of the constituency.

With the victory, the strength of the Akali Dal has gone up to 57 in the 117-member House. It also enjoys the support of two Independent MLAs in a House where the halfway mark is 59. Its long term ally, BJP has 12 members. (March 1, 2013)

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