Exactly five years ago during the 2019 General Elections, Bhagwant Mann was waging a lone battle for his Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab.
And he ended up to be the only MP elected to the Lok Sabha as the party lost all the 12 other constituencies in Punjab and all the seven seats of Delhi.
That victory proved to be the lifeline for the AAP in Punjab as it stormed to power three years later.
Bhagwant Mann is once again doing the same thing after five years. Waging the battle as the “lonely warrior” for the party that stormed to power in Punjab in 2022 with a thumping two-thirds majority.
Again the credit for that victory goes to Mann as he led the party from the front and was its only face, and quite popular at that.
Compared to the 2022, the battle this time for Mann is tougher. IN 2022, he rode an anti-incumbency wave against the Congress and an overall disillusionment and alienation with the traditional political parties in Punjab.
It turned out to be an emphatic victory for the AAP.
So much has changed since 2022. Like they say, a week is a long time in politics, the AAP is in power in Punjab for about two and a half years now, half the term of its government.
The only thing that gives it some hope is the free power, up to 200 units per month to people. But that may not be enough to help the party to repeat its 2022 feat. Moreover, the majority of people were already getting that much free power. The AAP government made it applicable for everyone.
Two and a half years are enough for any government to generate a lot of anti-incumbency. The AAP is not an exception. Moreover, Punjab has mostly voted against ‘the ruling party in the state’ in the General Elections.
This is apparently because the General Elections here are held almost exactly at the time of ‘midterm’ of the government’s five year tenure.
Mann, given that he is a shrewd and a smart politician, knows it very well. He is sailing against the tide with a heavy weight of expectations and he does not have anyone else to share it with.
His Delhi counterpart and the party supremo Arvind Kejriwal is on an interim bail. Besides, he is too preoccupied in Delhi where elections are scheduled to be held on May 5. He will be available for Punjab after that.
Meanwhile, it is all on Mann’s shoulders in the state. This election is going to be a referendum on his government’s performance. Since he has wielded all the power himself, the onus will be on him to deliver.
Having remained preoccupied with governance, he has not managed to build up an effective and strong party structure in the state, unlike in Delhi, where the AAP has strong and well oiled party machinery. That absence is being very much felt in Punjab.
Whether by design or default, the AAP has not built up any strong second rung leadership in Punjab. It is only ‘the Bhagwant Mann’. It does not have any popular and influential faces at the grassroots or at the district level.
The fact that the party had to field five sitting ministers, three sitting MLA, three defectors and one popular Punjabi artiste, is indicative of the lack of leaders in the party.
Effectively, the AAP has only one candidate who was preparing himself to contest the parliamentary election and that is Malwinder Sigh Kang, the party spokesperson, from Sri Anandpur Sahib.
The AAP is not in an enviable position in Punjab right now. It is a tough battle for Mann to lead, but he has to lead it anyway. And he is leading it well and probably much better than others.
Given his masterly oratorical skills, command over Punjabi language with a raw and rustic tone, he manages to connect very well with the masses.
Mann has been a great satirist before he joined politics. His comedy was mostly satirical. This has come handy for him in his public appearances where he mixes political rhetoric with satire making a powerful impression.
But will that be enough to swing votes in favour of his candidates can be anybody’s guess. It takes a lot more than effective and powerful speeches to win an election. Mann is faced with a challenging situation whose consequences nobody can share with him. Success or failure, will be squarely for him to own up.
Despite knowing the challenges and limitations, he has been exuding full confidence. He has been repeatedly asserting that the AAP will make it 13-0 this time as, according to him, it will sweep all the thirteen seats. That is definitely quite a tall order to achieve.
The stakes are quite high for the AAP in general and Mann in particular. The results will, as already mentioned, directly be attributed to Mann, whichever way these may be. And Mann knows it quite well.
Meanwhile, he is giving his best moving from constituency to constituency keeping the momentum going.
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