CHANDIGARH, Punjab — As Punjab went to polls on Wednesday, the surprise surge seen in favor of new entrant the Aam Admi Party (AAP) has not only left the established parties rattled but may well add a whole new dimension to politics in the state. When the election process commenced a month ago, the AAP had completely been dismissed as a non-starter by the two both the Congress party and Shirmoani Akali Dal (SAD). But AAP's unassuming bunch of candidates drew unprecedented, spontaneous crowds in constituency after constituency during the campaign. Later, Sukhbir Singh Badal, the deputy chief minister of the state and senior leader of SAD, publicly that the AAP could pick up 15 to 20 percent of the votes. The uncertainty about the results of Punjab can be gauged from the fact that as campaigning came to an end on Monday, it became clear that the AAP will not just dent the two major political entities but is likely to pick up a few seats as well. That this is happening in a state which was not even seriously on the party's radar has taken its own leaders by surprise. Is it possible that no one anticipated the double anti-incumbency in Punjab? A deep anger against the high-handed ways of the ruling SAD-BJP combine is matched by an equal disenchantment with the ruling United Progressive Alliance and its Sikh Prime Minister's 10-year-rule at the center. The AAP has stepped into this space, offering not just its attractive new style of clean politics but captured the imagination of the Sikh voters by reaching out to them on issues like injustice of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, agrarian distress and everyday corruption. The party even had the Sikh hard-liners queueing up to honor leaders such as Yogendra Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal, which the latter declined.
