As a highly politicised Punjab ambles towards its next joust with electoral politics – Punjab Assembly elections are due in February 2022 –will the farmer agitation be the deciding factor? Is there an electoral demographic called ‘farmers’? Which way will the vote banks, not quite associated with the agitation, vote? How are the traditional players, seemingly rendered irrelevant at one point – Shiromani Akali Dal & Congress – coming back into reckoning? Could there be an Akali Dal-BSP alliance? Or an AAP-Breakaway Akalis-BSP alliance? Is there a faultline between electoral politics and agitational politics? Will the agitation/agitationists metamorphose into a political party? SP Singh debates in this edition of Daleel.

IN this DEBATE WITH Baljit Balli, Editor, Babushahi portal and formerly associated for decades with Jalandhar-based Ajit newspaper; Sarabjit Singh Dhaliwal, State Head, Dainik Savera Group and formerly Chief of Bureau of The Tribune; Sarabjit Pandher, senior journalist who has spent decades with media houses such as PTI and The Hindu; and Inderpreet Singh, the Chief of Bureau, Dainik Jagran, we take up these onerous questions but with a light touch.

We talk about some very angry people, and try and find out which way will rage vote? Who will be seen as part of the rot, and who as alternative? Will Amarinder Singh’s lack of accessibility, and questions about his health be a factor? Given the dynamics of his not-so-enviable relationship with Rahul Gandhi, will he be the CM face? Within Congress, Rahul Gandhi is more settled even without a formal post than he was last time.

Will the untiring warrior of electoral fights, Sukhbir Singh Badal and his well-lubricated party machinery give it an edge? Can the SAD find its historical muscle to stand up to a strong BJP Centre and a poorly run Congress regime here?

Many experts think Amarinder Singh has been running a BJP government by proxy, and he does enjoy the credibility expected of any secular political force, but then, Congress might get the Hindutva vote. That will be the SAD’s loss as earlier BJP was bringing in that vote.

Which way will BSP go, and what effect it could have? Will farmer leaders harbour political ambitions? Could the kisan andolan become a Kisan Andolan Party? With Lakha Sidhana as its youth wing leader?

What are the prospect of the much-hyped Navjot Sidhu factor, Pargat Singh factor etc? What about the breakaway Akali Dals? Dhindsas are sending every signal they are going with AAP. If that happens, it will fall upon Congress to bash the Dhindsas, not Badals. How will people see this opportunism? What about AAP being B team of Congress rhetoric? We completely skip that factor called Sukhpal Singh Khaira!

At times, we dunk the dialogue about onerous issues in a chitter-chatter dip to keep things a little light. After all, we live in times when it’s becoming possible to win polls with a Prashant Kishore and a laptop.