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Punjab : Election times |
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In a surprise move, the BJP announced its candidates on June 14 for the coming Assembly elections in Punjab. All its sitting MLAs have been renominated. The BJP had put up its candidates in 23 constituencies in the earlier Assembly elections. While 18 were elected, five lost. The losing candidates have also been renominated. As the BJP is part of the ruling coalition in the Punjab, this step is likely to make opposition parties infer that the elections are not far off. However, sources in the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) say that the elections would not be held before January next year.
There are two Akali factions in the state - one headed by Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and the other led by the former SGPC chief, Gurucharan Singh Tohra. The BJP wants unity between these two, but this appears unlikely at present. The elections would, therefore, be contested by the SAD and the BJP without the Tohra faction.
The other factor in elections is the People’s Front which has not yet decided on its allies who could be either the Tohra faction or the Congress. The CPI national general secretary, Mr. A.B. Bardhan, said last week that the past and the present will be taken into account before admitting any party into the Front. The Tohra camp has been eager to have a tie up with the newly formed People’s Front to give their own formation a national dimension. On the Congress, Mr. Bardhan said “at present nationally, we want to keep the Congress from coming to power. However, we are also aware that we cannot do so in every state.” In the poll in Punjab during the last six years, the CPI unit in the state has been going along with the Congress, but now with the CPI being a founder member of the People’s Front, it is not clear which way, the CPI will tilt.
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