Chandigarh: Former Congress leader and Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh's newly formed Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) might spoil the electoral game of Congress. Just two days ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections, speculations about which party will form the government in the state has intensified. All the surveys say that no party will have the majority to form the government and it will be a hung Assembly.
The last survey was released on February 7 and many developments have taken place including the visits of PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi. All eyes are on Punjab Lok Congress because considering Captain's political performance, he did not let any challenge dominate him. After the Balakot strike ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had tremendous support from people, thanks to the nationalism rhetoric. Even then, Captain Amarinder-led congress continued to keep Congress coalition in power and got more seats than the previous election.
Despite the 'Modi wave' in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, Amarinder did not let the 'morale' of the Congress fall as it had in other states. Additionally, BJP's strong leader and former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley could not defeat him from Amritsar seat. At one point not long ago, Captain was the strongest and most trusted commander in Congress. His nationalist face and frank speech strengthened his image.
When the Captain left Congress and formed his own party, it was expected that some big leaders would follow suit and join his party. However, no major leaders did. And the ones that joined quit the party before the elections. Punjab Lok Congress is contesting elections in 34 Assembly constituencies, but there is not much hope about miracle victory.
Punjab's political affairs expert and former bank manager Manjit Singh Randhawa said that "Captain's party may win some seats". "Since the contest is five-cornered and the candidates will win or lose with very less votes, Captain's party may spoil the game of other parties in some seats especially Congress'". Captain Amarinder Singh said on the last day of campaigning in Patiala that his party was new, but that his candidates would win more seats than expected.
Harish Chandra, a senior journalist from Chandigarh, said that "often new parties do not perform well". "Gurcharan Singh Tohra's party Sarvhind Akali Dal could not survive in the past. Akali Dal 1920, Akali Dal Democratic, Akali Dal Mann, Akali Dal Taksali, formed in 1996, Jagmeet Singh Brar's Lok Yudh Morcha, Sukhpal Singh Khaira's Punjab Ekta Party and Manpreet Badal's People's Party of Punjab (PPP) and other parties were formed. But either these parties merged into other parties or could not perform well," he said. However, Harish Chandra believes that the Captain's party would benefit from the BJP.
READ: The poll dynamics of Punjab: Prospects of AAP, Congress and BJP
