THE SILENT HINDU VOTE

On the afternoon of Nov­ ember 3, images of Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and PPCC (Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee) chief Navjot Singh Sidhu at the Kedarnath temple in Uttarakhand began doing the rounds.

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

The ‘peace pilgrimage’ was organised by the Congress’s new incharge Harish Chaudhary to allow the warring leaders to bury their differ­ences and to send out a message to the Hindus in Punjab that the party was mindful of their sensitivities.

Hindus constitute 38.5 per cent of the electorate in Punjab and are the biggest chunk of swing voters. There are 45 seats in which they are either in a majority or sizeable enough to influ­ence results. In the past three decades, the 7­14 per cent Hindu swing vote has been a deciding factor in election outcomes. In 2017, 10.5 per cent of the Hindu vote abandoned the SAD­BJP combine, leaving them with their worst tally in the post­militancy era—18 of 117 seats. Likewise, in 2007, 13.5 per cent of the Hindu vote swung away from the Amarinder Singh­led Congress, leading to the party’s rout in urban centres and the ouster of its government.