Mann’s gamble: Has Punjab CM alienated farmers for by-election win?

The sudden motion took everybody without warning. On the night of 19 March, when a big contingent of Punjab Police personnel, accompanied by JCB machines, arrived on the Shambhu and Khanauri border factors, nobody anticipated what was about to unfold. For over 13 months, farmers protesting beneath the management of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) had been carrying on with their each day routines.

The primary shock got here with stories that senior Morcha leaders, together with Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher, had been arrested in Mohali. Nearly instantly, the police and JCB machines sprang into motion — demolishing the stage and dismantling the makeshift lodging of the protesting farmers, losing no time in clearing a street which had remained blocked for greater than a yr.

Why did the Punjab authorities, which had not solely tolerated the motion for 13 months but additionally appeared to assist it not directly, out of the blue lose persistence? To seek out the reply, one should look 100 km away to Ludhiana, the place preparations are underway for the Ludhiana West meeting by-election.

This by-election holds vital strategic significance for Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal, who’s reeling from a serious electoral setback in Delhi. AAP has fielded Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora, a distinguished Ludhiana industrialist, as its candidate. Studies counsel that if Arora wins, he will probably be inducted into the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab cupboard.

Ought to Arora resign his Rajya Sabha seat upon victory, a emptiness would open up — doubtlessly paving the way in which for Kejriwal to safe a place within the Higher Home. Nevertheless, this hinges on AAP’s success within the by-election, a contest that neither Mann nor Kejriwal are leaving any stone unturned to win.