Punjab: Informal meetings are on ahead of counting day

In Badal village, the native place of Badals, it is all quiet as of now as this time the buzz of forming government is not that strong. Tejinder Singh Middukhera, senior SAD leader from Lambi district, however, said, “We are sure of forming a government. AAP is just making noise in the social media, otherwise people vote silently. Looking at the multi-cornered contest, one can make out that margins may decrease but I am hopeful of forming government. In Lambi, AAP had run campaign targetting Badal senior ‘s age but I must say that the amount of time he spends with masses, not even a 30-year-old candidate can invest. I don’t think that there is even a single house in Lambi where people had not clicked a photo with Badal senior. What is in age, when you are active enough to work ,” he asked.

Back in the constituency, a SAD supporter added, “Badal senior’s margin might decrease, but he will win for sure.” He added, “In Dhuri, Bhagwant Mann had to do so many rallies, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal himself, his wife and daughter too had to come there while in Lambi, Badal senior did limited campaign and Sukhbir Badal visited Jalalabadonly once or twice. Hence, one is sure of the ground work done in a constituency.”

As most political parties themselves are not sure of getting full majority, masses have started guessing that a coalition government. Looking at the past experience of AAP where 10 out of 20 elected MLAs had switched parties, social media messages have started circulating that if this time AAP MLAs will switch masses will oppose this move. It will be cheating the voters who voted them with a hope to give them a chance instead of the grand old parties who had already ruled the state. “Looking at the past experiences in other states, we too are worried as whether there be an exodus of MLAs from one party to another for the sake of a mili juli sarkar,” said Shivani Gupta, a young voter of Bhadaur constituency.

Ranjodh Singh Lambi,a SAD leader, said, “In 2017 nearly 15 seats of SAD were lost due to a thin margin of about 1,500 votes. People were saying that we will not win more than 5 seats but still we got 15 seats, hence, I think this time anyone who gets this much vote share, can form government.”