Elections to five municipal corporations in Punjab are scheduled to be held this month. The Supreme Court of India had set a deadline within which the entire process had to be completed. The government was left with no choice but to hold the elections in the month of December only.
While the recently concluded by-elections to four assembly segments mostly ended up in direct fight between the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress, except for Barnala, where it was multi-cornered, in the municipal corporation elections the Bharatiya Janata Party will be an important force, as strong as anyone else.
The crisis ridden Shiromani Akali Dal, which had not participated in the by-elections, in all likelihood, will be contesting the municipal elections as it cannot afford to be out of electoral politics for a long time. More so, in the municipal corporation elections, it is the urban bodies representatives who are chosen and who establish grassroots connection with the people.
Going by the 2022 assembly election results, which the AAP had swept, winning all the urban seats of the five cities where the municipal corporations are being held, it should have been a smooth ride this time. However, having delayed the elections for quite a long time, as half of the term of the government is already complete, the party is faced with an uphill task.
The AAP government has been forced to hold the elections when the anti-incumbency is at its peak. In the parliamentary elections, the AAP was completely swept out from all the five cities of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala, Amritsar and Bathinda. Not much has changed since the parliamentary elections for the AAP.
The AAP will also find it difficult to explain to the people as to why it did not start paying Rs 1000 monthly cash assistance to women it had promised ahead of 2022 assembly elections. The promise of Rs 1000 to women was believed to be one of the important reasons for the AAP’s overwhelming victory in Punjab in a similar way the BJP led Mahayuti’s Ladli Behna Scheme in Maharashtra is said to be the reason for its (Mahayuti’s) sweeping victory.
It is but natural that the opposition parties, the BJP, the Congress and the SAD will play up the non-payment of monthly cash assistance. Whether the 300 units of free power will deliver any benefit to the AAP can be anybody’s guess, as it did not help the party in the 2024 General Elections.
Congress had the majority in all the five outgoing municipal corporations as it had won all of these in the elections held after it formed the government in the state in 2017. It has a strong cadre spread across all the wards everywhere in the state. The candidates are well connected and well rooted. Besides, the Congress performance in these cities, except for Ludhiana, has been phenomenally impressive in the parliamentary elections.
The BJP has a longtime presence in all the five cities. Although it did not win any of the parliamentary seats in Punjab, the performance of the candidates in urban areas was quite impressive, which is going to be quite challenging for both the AAP as well as the Congress.
The SAD, which is already in decline across the state, stares at a similar fate during the corporation elections. It is the only political party in the state, which has not started any activity ahead of the elections. This is primarily because the leadership is in a state of complete disarray and the party does not find many stakes in these elections.
Another important factor is that the municipal corporation elections are conducted by the State Election Commission while the Election Commission of India does not have any role. There is always a likelihood, rather it normally happens, that the officials responsible for holding the elections are influenced or coerced to favour the ruling party. But that help can also be possible to a limited extent only, particularly during the present times when everything is under constant scrutiny of watchful eyes of the general public.
In all likelihood, the municipal corporation elections in Punjab are going to be very keenly contested as the political parties have high stakes involved in them. The results will have a definite impact on how things will unfold in the run up to the assembly elections, which though are still over two years away.
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