Punjab elections 2017: Campaigning comes to a close

As campaigning draws to a close in the countdown to the February 4 vote, anger runs deep in Doaba, the land between the Beas and the Satluj which, with the regions of Malwa and Majha, makes the state. And it is this feedback from the Dalit stronghold of Punjab that has the ruling SAD-BJP combine worried.

As elsewhere in the state, one of the talking points this election in Doaba has been the menace of drugs and the failure to stem the rot. Any talk of development is immediately overtaken by that of the illegal drug trade.