The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday announced the date for Punjab Assembly elections, saying it will be a race against time for political parties in the state as voters are yet to be offered a clear chief minister’s post. Elections in Punjab will be held on February 14 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10.
Even as the mystery still looms over who will be its CM face, the ruling Congress is yet to announce the first list of contesting candidates. The grand old party has already held two meetings of the screening committee and announced that party leaders have reached a consensus for at least 50 seats apart from their dilemma of declaring the chief minister’s face. The biggest dilemma of the Congress will be whether to go ahead with the incumbent CM Charanjit Singh Channi or nominate Punjab Congress President Navjot Singh Sidhu for the post of CM.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced candidates for 104 seats, but it is yet to declare the CM face. Similarly, the SAD-BSP alliance has also announced 88 seats for the upcoming elections.
On the other hand, the newly formed alliance between former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress, BJP and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa-led SAD (D) is yet to announce the seat-sharing arrangement for the state assembly elections.
This election will be one of the first in Punjab where it is expected to be a multi-cornered election. Samyukta Samaj Morcha (SSM), a political wing of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which helped spearhead the year-long protests against three controversial agriculture bills, has jumped to give a tough fight in the Punjab elections. Though farmer leader Balbir Rajewal is known as its leader, there is no official word yet from the farmers as to who will be their choice for the chief minister’s post in the state.
If no party declares the CM face, then the election campaign will become more interesting. Although the AAP has made it clear that this time it will ensure that they go to polls with the CM face, a formal announcement has so far remained elusive. Soon after the announcement of the dates by the Election Commission, party leader Jarnail Singh said that the party would ensure that it would go to the polls with the face of the CM and would not make the same mistake that it did to go faceless in 2017. The SAD has forged an alliance with the BSP, but is grappling with an “image perception”.
read all breaking news, today’s fresh news And coronavirus news Here.
,