Chandigarh/Mohali:
As Punjab goes to vote today, it is expected to be a very close fight for power between the Akali Dal and Congress. The elections in Punjab this time has been characterised by family feuds with both sides on the divide. If the ruling Akalis have Sukhbir Badal against Manpreet and Parkash Singh Badal against Gurdas Badal, the Congress has Amarinder Singh against Malvinder.
What has made Punjab elections very interesting, despite Congress looking like it has an edge, is that many seats are witnessing multi-cornered contests with Manpreet Badal's PPP-led Sanjha Morcha expected to eat into Akali votes in at least 13 seats in the Malwa region. In a close contest, this can be crucial.
Similarly, while Congress is expected to get a lion's share of Dalit votes in Doaba, with Dera Sach Khand deciding to support it, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) can play a spoiler by increasing its vote share even if it doesn't show in terms of seats won. BSP got 4.1 % of vote share in 2007 without winning any seat.
While Akalis may lose several seats in Majha, they are expected to make some gains in Malwa where they won only 19 out of 67 seats last time. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, SAD (Badal) led in 32 of these assembly segments and the fact that Dera Sacha Sauda, with its considerable clout, has not come out openly against it can work to its advantage. SAD's fate will also depend on the performance of BJP which won 19 out of 23 seats last time.
The Congress led by former chief minister Amarinder Singh has levelled major charges of corruption and mis-governance against the government of Parkash Singh Badal. Most of the 117 Assembly seats will see a triangular contest between the ruling SAD-BJP alliance, the Congress and the Sanjha Morcha, which includes the Left and newly-floated People's Party of Punjab (PPP) led by Manpreet Badal, a nephew of the chief minister who broke away from the Akali Dal.
Civil servants D S Guru, Principal Secretary to the CM and P S Gill, DGP, who resigned and retired respectively shortly before the elections have filed their nominations from Bhadaur and Moga.
The other notable contestants include Manpreet (Gidderbaha and Maur), his father and Badal senior's younger brother Gurdas (Lambi) and his cousin Mahesh Inder (Lambi), former Deputy Speaker Bir Devinder Singh (Mohali), turncoat Balwant Singh Ramoowalia (Mohali), former Industries Minister and senior BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia (Jalandhar) and former
SGPC chief Jagir Kaur (Bholath).
In the 2007 elections, Shiromani Akali Dal had won 49 seats and its alliance partner BJP got 19 to annex power from the Congress.
While the Congress had then bagged 44 seats, the remaining five seats went to the Independents. The security deposit of 798 candidates was forfeited in the 2007 polls.
Of the major contestants, the SAD had got a vote share of 37.09 per cent in 2007 as against 31.08 per cent in 2002. Its alliance partner BJP got a vote share of 8.28 per cent in
2007 against 5.67 per cent in 2002.
The Congress had got a vote share of 40.90 per cent in 2007 as compared to 35.81 per cent in 2002. The counting of votes of Monday's election will take place on March 6.
(With inputs from PTI)