Westside View

The AAP’s perceived decline in Punjab is expected to help the Congress; the BJP’s nationalism may not sell in the border state

- Pratul Sharma

IN MARCH 2017, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh led his party to victory in the assembly elections. That victory gave the grand old party hope that it can revive its fortunes if it approached the polls aggressively. In December that year, the Congress gained 20 seats in Gujarat, and a year later, it won three states in the Hindi heartland.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP adopted a simple two-point strategy. Push the nationalism narrative and make the elections only about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In Punjab, though, the elections are about Singh, too, a Patiala royal and former Army officer. Moreover, the anti-Pakistan sentiment is not as pronounced in Punjab as in the rest of the Hindi-speaking areas owing to its cultural ties with the western Punjab.

Singh is the main campaigner for his party and one of the main targets of attacks by the Akali Dal-BJP combine, which accuses his government of not fulfilling its promises. Congress state president and Gurdaspur candidate Sunil Jakhar told THE WEEK that Modi had run out of time, unlike Singh’s government. “Our tenure has just begun,” he said. Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of Shiromani Akali Dal and former deputy chief minister, countered: “Amarinder Singh is the worst chief minister since independence. The state is in paralysis.”