Voters were not only disenchanted with the Congress state government, they were almost equally angry with the BJP government. in the center
Voters were not only disenchanted with the Congress state government, they were almost equally angry with the BJP government. in the center
Even as the Punjab election verdict constituted a clear disapproval of the Congress state government by the voters, it was not just the Congress that was angered by the voters. He was almost equally angry with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre. Dissatisfaction with the Narendra Modi government’s performance in the state during the last three years was almost as high as the dissatisfaction with the Congress government’s five-year term in the Lokniti-CSDS’s post-poll survey.
While six out of every 10 voters said they were completely dissatisfied with the state government, absolute dissatisfaction with the Modi government was marginally lower at a little over half the voters.
Only one in every 10 voters expressed their complete satisfaction with the two governments, indicating widespread anger among voters. Such a big difference between the proportion of people who are completely dissatisfied and the percentage of people who are completely satisfied has not been seen in our election surveys of other states in the recent or even distant past, either by a state government (not even unpopular) or Central Govt. It is also interesting that despite the Centre’s repeal of controversial agricultural laws, the anger against the Modi government in Punjab was so intense.
Though a majority of voters voted only on the performance of the state government (58%) and not the performance of the Modi government (8%), the BJP and Capt (Retd) Amarinder Singh’s alliance was simply unable to capitalize on it. Dissatisfaction with the Congress government because of its unpopularity.
Not only were voters dissatisfied with the central government, but as Manjesh Rana noted in the article on the Channi Factor, the dissatisfaction among voters was greater than in the five years of the Congress government of Captain Amarinder Singh’s four-and-a-half years. -The tenure of one year and less because of Charanjit Channi’s tenure of six months. Therefore, the BJP alliance suffered in both cases – an unpopular Captain Amarinder Singh and above that, an unpopular central government. In fact, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) did not contest the elections jointly with the BJP, which seems to have worked little in favor of the Akalis. Had he forged an alliance with BJP, he might not have won so many seats.
displeasure with legislators
Voters were not only angry with the state and central governments, but they were also found to be quite dissatisfied with their MLAs, especially Congress MLAs. While only one-fifth of voters in seats with Congress MLAs expressed complete satisfaction with their performance, more than a third were completely dissatisfied. However, this dissatisfaction with the Congress legislators was much less than the dissatisfaction of the Congress government and it can be argued that the number of seats the Congress has won may be more due to the relative popularity of some of its MLAs. In fact, the survey found that nearly one-third of voters in Punjab voted on the basis of candidates and not parties, and the Congress fared relatively better in the region, only nine behind the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Points back. On the other hand, out of six out of 10 voters who voted on party lines, the Congress is trailing by 24 points behind the AAP.
In the end, voters were not only angry with the governments and to some extent their local leaders, but also widespread disenchantment with Punjab’s two main traditional parties – the Congress and the Akalis – who have ruled the state for, in turn, the last two and a half decades. From. An analysis of how previous supporters of Congress and SAD voted this time shows that both the parties lost almost a third of their previous voters to AAP.
Punjab was clearly displeased with the establishment and decisively voted for change.
Sandeep Shastri is the Vice Chancellor of Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal and National Coordinator of Lokniti Network; Shreyas Sardesai is with Lokniti-CSDS