With Punjab Polls Less Than 48 Hours Away, Here's The Scene at Party Offices of Congress, AAP and SAD

With less than 48 hours to go for the February 20 Punjab polls, News18.com visited the party offices of the three main contenders — the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Shiromani Akali Dal. The scenes inside tell the story to a great extent.

First, the Congress. It was the only office that was buzzing. The rooms were occupied and many party workers and volunteers were fiercely working away on the phones and laptops. There were leaders who had come from Delhi and were now deciding and planning strategy. It’s here that the division within the party became clear. There was little connect among those gathered. The presence of senior leaders from Delhi, in no way linked to Punjab, baffled the local ones.

The Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) office was empty with state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu fighting a tough poll in Amritsar East. Sidhu’s anger with the party high command remains and sources say he rarely comes on the phone. Many don’t understand the need for a long press conference. Sidhu and chief ministerial face Charanjit Singh Channi rarely share the stage. And the one time Channi campaigned for Sidhu was when Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked him to. Said a party leader from Punjab, “They (leaders from Delhi) don’t speak our language. They don’t understand, yet they campaign for us or stay in hotels, ignoring us.”

In contrast, the AAP and Akali offices were empty as most of the leaders were away to bases and for field campaigning. None of the leaders were even encouraged to stay in Chandigarh and have been told to campaign for candidates or work for the party.

As far as AAP is concerned, a team of MPs is around but out of sight. They have been allocated zones and asked to send daily reports to the top leadership and party chief Arvind Kejriwal. The party office was empty, barring a couple of phones being worked to give inputs to Kejriwal.

Decentralisation is the buzzword as far as AAP and the Akalis are concerned. In fact, even for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which hopes to make inroads this time, all information is monitored and sent from the ground. Local leaders are being encouraged and strict word has been given not to upstage them by pushing central leaders.

Punjab will have elections on February 20 in a single phase for its 117 assembly seats. The votes will be counted on March 10.

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