New Delhi: The Congress sensed mid-term elections could take place in Punjab over the next six months because of the leadership crisis in the AAP and said it was ready for the challenge.
“I think mid-term polls may take place in Punjab in the next six months. After losing Delhi assembly polls AAP founder Arvind Kejriwal may change chief minister Bhagwant Mann as he wants to rule the state from Delhi. In that situation a beleaguered Mann may approach the Governor with a mid-term poll plan who may agree to it. We are ready for the polls,” AICC secretary in charge of Punjab Alok Sharma told ETV Bharat.
Over the past few days various Punjab Congress leaders including CLP leader Partap Singh Bajwa and former minister SS Randhawa claimed that several AAP MLAs were in touch with them and could switch sides soon. However, AICC insiders said the likelihood of a split in the AAP’s Punjab unit was unlikely given the anti-defection law.
The AICC functionary said the leadership crisis in the AAP showed as former Delhi chief minister and AAP founder Kejriwal had summoned all 91 lawmakers in Punjab to Delhi for a review.
“A review meeting could also have been done in Chandigarh. Summoning all the MLAs to Delhi shows that Kejriwal wants to show who is boss. Already, chief minister Mann had been missing in action and the state government had failed to address several of the governance challenges like law and order, drugs, unemployment and the plight of the farmers. The chief minister never had a free hand in running the state government,” said Sharma.
According to SS Randhawa, it hardly mattered where the AAP lawmakers were meeting but said that in the past Kejriwal had travelled on a chopper or a chartered flight funded by the Punjab government and could have done the same this time. The Congress veteran said what was more important was whether Kejriwal clarified the issues flagged earlier by him over governance in Delhi and Punjab.
“Kejriwal had earlier promised he would never take a government vehicle, house or security but he did that. He never responded to my corruption charges. The chair of Punjab chief minister had become very unstable even before the Delhi elections when Kejriwal was jailed in the liquor scam and is now rocking after the Delhi poll loss,” Randhawa told ETV Bharat.
According to Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Raja Warring if midterm elections were held soon, the aap would come down to single digit. Punjab leaders had been strongly opposed to a tie up with the AAP for the 2024 national elections when the two parties had a seat sharing agreement in Delhi.
However, sensing the politics in Delhi and Punjab was closely linked, the Congress had deployed several Punjab leaders to campaign against AAP in Delhi even as chief minister Mann sought votes for his party nominees. The AAP’s shocking defeat in Delhi has given an opportunity to the Punjab Congress leaders to up the ante against the ruling party which grew by taking away the grand old party’s traditional vote banks.
