There have been rumblings in Punjab over the speculations of the likely chief ministerial candidates for quite some time. However, with the assembly elections scheduled for February 20, let us discuss it in detail.
Charanjit Singh Channi
The incumbent chief minister of Punjab, Charanjit Singh Channi, is the face of Congress in the upcoming state election, announced Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at his Ludhiana rally. Channi has decided to contest from two assembly constituencies: Bhadaur and Chamkaur Sahib. Gandhi touted this selection to be Punjab’s decision, not his. Speaking more about Channi, Gandhi said that the state needed a chief minister who understood poverty and could be the voice of the poor. The Congress party hopes that this selection will consolidate the state’s decisive Dalit vote, which at 33%, is the highest in the country and could help the party form the government again.
Bhagwant Mann
Punjab affairs in-charge Raghav Chadha announced on February 3, 2022, that Bhagwant Mann is to be the Chief Minister candidate for the Aam Aadmi Party in the upcoming state elections. He will contest Dhuri, which falls in his Sangrur Lok Sabha seat. Mann is a two-time MP from Sangrur and has won his victory in both cases by impressive margins against the rivals Congress and SAD. Hence, Mann has the image of a Pan-Punjab leader. It is also interesting to note that the AAP was the first party to announce its Chief Minister candidate ahead of the state elections. Mann first won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat in 2014, where he got 55% of all total votes, leading the nearest rival with 33,000 votes. In 2019, he led the Congress candidate for the same seat by about 24,000 votes, despite his total vote share only being 45% this time around.
Others
The BJP-SAD alliance, on the other hand, has not declared any candidate for the chief ministerial face. Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture Meenakshi Lekhi clarified the stance stating, “BJP does not declare the CM candidate”, as per the Hindustan Times. She justified the position by explaining that the party had not announced any CM candidates going into Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra polls. That is why probably the BJP does not intend to declare a chief minister face this time around either. The sentiment in the camp is that it could do more harm than good as the situation in Punjab has not been very favourable to BJP lately, owing to the farmers’ discontent with the laws that were eventually repealed in December last year.
These are impactful chief ministerial candidates of the political parties that will likely be at the centre of all the power-play in Punjab.
