Amid Congress grappling with infighting and Aam Admi Party (AAP) struggling to find a Chief Ministerial face, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has already announced candidates for 69 of the 117 Assembly constituencies with barely some months left for the State polls.
On Monday, the party announced candidates for five more constituencies including Ludhiana (South) indicating that it was bracing up for the polls. The party was voted out of power in 2017 battling a huge anti-incumbency over alleged misgovernance and mishandling of sacrilege cases. Though the party is still confronted with an image issue, the crisis in Congress could provide it with an opportunity to claw its way back.
It already has sealed a pre-poll deal with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the State, hoping to negate the advantage Congress could accrue post elevation of Charanjit Singh Channi as the Chief Minister. Also, the SAD-BSP combine has decided that it would begin the mass outreach programme from Doaba, strategically choosing the region to cash in on the `anger’ of Congress supporters over giving top posts (CM and Deputy CM) to the Majha region.
Zeroing down on Jalandhar as one of the areas, both the parties as part of the planned outreach strategy would initiate mass contact programmes with residents. Senior SAD leaders said that former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal too would be part of this outreach programme.
As per the strategy of the combine, they would be meeting people from various walks of life and their suggestions would be incorporated depending on their area of expertise.
Leaders of both parties have asked their city-based leaders and party workers to identify the venue for these outreach programmes.
These programmes will be held throughout October. With BSP as its ally, they did not want to miss out on the opportunity to hold a State-level function on the occasion of the death anniversary of BSP founder Kanshi Ram. The leaders of both parties have planned an event on October 9, near DAV University on Pathankot Road.
With senior Badal having jumped into the campaign after a hiatus, the SAD-BSP combine wants to make the most out of the existing chaos in the ruling Congress.
Taking a dig at the Congress in Punjab, Harsimrat Badal on Monday has said that the Congress has failed to fulfil all its promises on jobs and waiving away off loans of farmers and now they have appointed a Chief Minister who does not even have the freedom to choose his own officers and his own Cabinet. “This was the best time for the SAD-BSP combine to start reaching out to people and convey their pro-people, development agenda,” said a senior SAD leader.
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