Recent five states assembly elections gave many shocking trends and also many historically established structures and political faced existential crisis i.e., these elections actually showed the new narrative that is building among voters and how it is giving rise to a new political both among politicians and voters.
Out of these five states Uttar Pradesh and Punjab were very important because of two reasons firstly, the number of seats and influence of these states in all types of national elections and secondly, the communities that comes from these states and their impact on the overall political structure of country.
In these elections Punjab gave the most shocking result, where a decade old party came to power winning against century old parties, AAP (Aam Admi Party) not only won this election but also came on surface as the third force in national politics as it is now only third party to have government in more than 1 states with absolute majority after BJP and INC.
Punjab politics: Moving to a new phase
Politics in Punjab for over 70 years since independence has revolved around the big national parties and caste-based politics with SAD (Shiromani Akali Dal) and INC (Indian National Congress) being the major parties and now these parties are facing the existential crisis in their own fort, with congress only getting 18 seats and SAD getting only 3.
SAD losing its charm and people support becomes more problematic because one of the oldest party of the country has been the major stakeholder of Sikhs in Punjab politics which was created for the only purpose, but now with it’s existential crisis of it is very problematic for Sikhs.
Though it is not the first time SAD has faced crisis in history there has been few crises but were easily dealt with one of it’s faction replacing other but this time the problems with SAD has risen up with no possible solution in near future.
What impact will it have on Sikh community that will be revealed in future but for a party whose political land has been shrinking since 2017 only big reforms can make actual change.
When it comes to congress, the party has been already facing problems in many states with internal fights and politics along with shrinking political land for the party and Punjab is no exception, with CM resigning from party just months before elections and the president drama being the center of it.
This also solidifies the narrative that no party can win elections without good ground level strategy which became one of the major reasons of congress lose along with incumbency and defection.
“AAP’s Punjab” turning to new class of Politicians
After AAP’s unexpected win in Punjab many trends have shown how there has been Punjab’s shift to set of new kind of politicians which becomes very evident by a fact that out of 117 members in assembly 85 will be debutant MLAs.
Majority of them belong to AAP though they come from ordinary political background but have a good education level which means now politics will be governed by more educated politicians though it does not provide levy for development.
But it at least gives some hope and also at least there will be a different plans and opinions when it comes to development as the majority of MLAs are of young age. Though the development and implementation of policy does not have any direct relation with education and age of politicians but it definitely gives some hope.
Published By: Apoorva Wakodikar
Edited By: Subbuthai Padma
