How will the bomb blast in Maur play out given that Sikh radical groups are being accused of triggering it? Will Congress’s personality-driven campaign of promoting Captain Amarinder Singh and Navjot Sidhu be enough to give it that much-needed win to show that it still has some gas left in the tank to win a major state? Can SAD emerge as the shock winner if the anti-incumbency vote is divided between Congress and AAP despite the strong resentment against Akalis and allegations that the government failed to stop instances of damage to the Sikh holy books by miscreants?
This is only a small sample of the unanswered questions before people decide the fate of the state on Saturday . Some observers feel that in stead of looking at Pun jab’s election as one composite election, it should be seen as 117 different elections with each constituency having a complex set of factors playing out. If individual candidates matter on certain seats, party’s appeal is a force on other seats. If anti-incumbency is playing out on some seats, powerful sects like Dera Sacha Sauda and Radhasaomi can influence results on other seats.
Interestingly , Dera Sacha Interestingly, Dera Sacha Sauda, which has a large army of supporters in Malwa, on Wednesday openly declared support for the SADBJP alliance. Dera supporters, or `Premis’, rarely waver from the diktat they receive but many Sikhs may now hesitate to vote for the alliance.SAD leaders say that there are many seats especially in Malwa on which the dera has 15,000 or more voters and Sikhs who were upset with them have already shifted their allegiance to other parties. AAP is also riding onetime comic and now MP Bhagwant Mann’s popularity in Malwa. His rustic satire and funny one-liners always draw in big crowds.
