Aaphill Drive

Kejriwal toils to climb a mountain in Punjab, Haryana. BJP, Congress work to bring Delhi CM down.

- Puneet Nicholas Yadav

THEY may collectively contribute just 23 seats to the Lok Sabha, but the battle for 13 constituencies of Punjab and 10 in Haryana does not lack in any of the thrill associated with Indian elections. Dynastic clashes, caste arithmetic, open betrayals and covert sabotage, warhorses pitted against dark horses—there’s plenty of it all in this high-stakes election season.

In 2014, riding on the Narendra Modi wave, the BJP had swept seven seats in Haryana and, together with its long-term ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), bagged another six in Punjab. The only blemish for the BJP was in Amritsar, where its most high-profile candidate in the state, Arun Jaitley, lost the first Lok Sabha poll he ever contested, despite the saffron tsunami. Five years later, a fresh political churning is at play in the two states, one that is causing equal unease to the established players in the field.

The electoral stunner in Punjab, in 2014, was Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Despite drawing a blank in Delhi, the city-state where it was born, AAP had won a 24 per cent vote share and four seats in Punjab. Haryana, however, treated AAP as a pariah; its candidates lost their deposits on all 10 seats of the state. Three years after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the election to Punjab’s 117-member assembly, in February 2017, saw the Amarinder Singh-led Congress dethroning the SAD-BJP regime. AAP, meanwhile, emerged as the largest opposition party.

But, within a year, AAP was besieged with rebellion. Seven of its MLAs, led by former leader of opposition in the Punjab assembly, Sukhpal Singh Khaira formed a rival group. AAP’s star legislator, advocate H.S. Phoolka, also quit the party. Two other MLAs have now joined the Congress and there is speculation that more of its legislators may switch to the Congress or SAD in the weeks ahead.