Akalis fail to capitalise on anti-incumbency factor
Friday, 24/05/2019
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/akalis-fail-to-capitalise-on-anti-incumbency-factor/777470.html
Chandigarh : After two years of political drubbing (in the elections and because of rebellion), the SAD has managed to emerge as the principal Opposition party with the massive win of its chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife and Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
The party’s vote share has increased from 26.30 per cent in 2014 and 25.30 in 2017 Assembly polls to 27.49 per cent now. The party has also managed a lead in most of the urban Assembly segments (of the total 90 Assembly segments) it contested.
The strategy adopted by the SAD to revive its fortunes seems to have worked, with the Badal couple throwing their hats in the ring. Political observers were expecting the Akali Dal to not even open its account owing to sacrilege incidents during their tenure and the shoddy probe, and the rebellion by senior party leaders against Sukhbir. The victory on two seats helps the party win the perception battle.
However, by losing eight of the 10 seats it contested this time, the party cannot claim to be the major partner in its alliance with the BJP. The saffron party has won two of its three seats, both with a massive margin. Despite pro-Modi sentiment in urban seats contested by SAD (Ludhiana and Jalandhar), the party failed to win. The future of the power balance between the alliance partners will also rest on today’s results.
The results also show that resting their whole campaign on religious lines towards the end- when they raked up the 1984 anti Sikh riots issue- did not go down too well with the electorate. The party failed to cash in on the anti-incumbency against the Congress — unemployment and agrarian distress had emerged as factors which had people venting ire on the ruling party.
The sacrilege “taint” on the party does seem to have not been washed off, as is apparent from the loss of Faridkot seat (the epicentre of sacrilege controversy).
