Click to play videoLambi (Punjab): The political weather has changed in Punjab and it’s Badal all over the skyline. The Akali Dal-BJP combine has managed to sweep the Congress out of power.
“The dispersing clouds will give way to the light of Prakash Singh Badal. It’s victory in everyway for the SAD-BJP combine,” said the jubilant BJP leader, Navjot Singh Sidhu, who won the Lok Sabha by-poll seat from Amritsar.
The grand old man in Punjab, 82-year-old Prakash Singh Badal is all set to return for the fourth time as Chief Minister, riding high on Captain Amarinder Singh and the Congress’s fall due to anti-incumbency.
“He was a dictator and ruled like one,” said Akali leader and Badal’s son Sukhbir Singh Badal.
So what really did the Congress out? The two major contenders had completely different takes.
“Congress has always been anti-Punjab. We are the saviours of people and we have to fight in that direction,” said a jubilant Badal Sr, all set to take over the reigns of the state.
Amarinder Singh was clearly on the defensive. “This has just been the opposite case. We have won in rural areas and lost out in urban areas. Had we won in the urban areas, we would have been forming the government,” he said.
These elections have thrown up a new political geography not just in the key constituencies but also across Punjab.
The Congress strongholds of Majha and Doaba have witnessed an Akali sweep.
The southern Malwa region where the Jat Sikh vote went in bulk to the Akalis has experienced an invasion by the Congress. But in the end, the arithmetic worked in Parkash Singh Badal's favour
For the grand old man of Punjab, this was perhaps a do or die chance.
As Badal gets ready to sit on the CM’s seat, the biggest challenge before him will be to move along with the winds of change sweeping across Punjab.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
More on IBNLive Right Now
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
