Badal village:
It's a big day in Punjab as counting gets underway soon. The Akali veteran, incumbent Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, is seeking his fifth term as CM. Making the contest interesting is Manpreet Singh Badal, who till 2010 was finance minister in the Parkash Singh Badal government. He quit over differences with his CM uncle and cousin, Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal to start his own party, the People's Party of Punjab (PPP). NDTV's Ketki Angre caught up with the 'bahu' of the Badal family, Akali MP, Harsimrat Kaur Badal at the family's home in Badal village.
Here are excerpts from the interview:NDTV: Butterflies in your stomach or confident of a win?
Badal: Not really, more excitement than butterflies, a new beginning, a new start, something new to look forward to
NDTV: The polls are saying it's too close to call.
Badal: Why they are saying that is what confuses me. We have a long history from my own election in which they said we were wiped out and I was losing and I won by the highest margin. Going back to the last elections where they were giving 90 seats to Amarinder and wiping us out when we formed the government. So I know the pollsters are always wrong, we don't have to think back, DMK, Jayalalithaa, I mean you just look into it they've always been wrong. It's just a bit confusing, how can they be so off the mark. We are pretty confident that we are going to form the government.
NDTV: Many say the worry is not the Akalis numbers, the worry is your ally, the BJPs numbers, because the last time they did phenomenally well with 19 seats. What if they do badly, that will still affect you?
Badal: Even if they do badly, they will reduce a few seats from 19, as long as they cross the 10-seat mark, we romp home because Akali Dal, even when we have done the worst, they've always managed about 44-45 seats when we are at out all time low. And there is no anti-incumbency this time, there is no all time low, so obviously we are going to do much better than 44-45 (seats), so even if BJP brings in 10 seats, we are home. Also history has it that the best that the Congress has ever done is 63 seats, they've never got more than that and 59 is the cut off to form the government so with no anti-incumbency this time, we started our campaign well in time, we've done work, we had something to say, the anti-Congress mood all over the country... I'm very confident people are going to vote for development.
NDTV: One big change from last time is also Manpreet Singh Badal factor, many feel, PPP is nothing more than a branch of Akalis, and in that sense wouldn't that also affect your vote share?
Badal: I think PPP is a creation of the media, yes, it was created by Manpreet Badal to ensure that the Akalis don't come into power and after that PPP was built up by the media, but PPP, according to me, is not going to win a single seat. The fact that Manpreet is not confident of his own seat and he's gone to another one, he's not even going to win his seats either of the 2 he's contesting, goes to show that if he doesn't have the confidence to win himself where is he going to make the entire party win. He's basically piggy-backing on the CPI-CPM, which has had this 2-3 percent vote-bank in Punjab always. If you actually want to know the performance of the PPP, see how much Manpreet polls...Full Stop!
NDTV: On a lighter note, it's been a whole month since the elections, feels like yesterday or far back? What are the thoughts in your mind?
Badal: It's been such a nice and relaxing break, we've been for a short holiday and for the first time in 5 years, Sukhbir, I and the kids spent a month together at a stretch, which has not happened in a long time. So we've all bonded as a family, my father-in-law, the kids, all of us, we've all relaxed and really chilled this whole month.
NDTV: And that has been unusual, you were telling us earlier...
Badal: The last five years have really been like a mad rush, from the time you get up to the time you finish, you don't know where the week has gone or the month. So this month has been really 'dear' actually. We've really enjoyed it. It's given us the break that we need to bond, relax, re-coup our energies and get ready, hopefully for the next 5 years as well.