The Legislative Assembly elections were held in Punjab on 20 February 2022 to elect the 117 members of the 16th Assembly of the Punjab Legislative Assembly. There has been a qualitative change in Punjab polls this year. It has changed from a two-party competition to a multi-party competition.
Mr. Rakesh Jhanjhi, Rural Marketing Expert, said that according to their recent survey it has been reported that Aam Aadmi Party has a great hold in Malwa region. Last year, AAP managed to get 18 seats from Malwa, now, this year there are chances that they will get at least 40-45 seats from Malwa which means their vote bank will increase nearly 15 percent in Malwa region. Talking about, Doaba and Majha area, AAP will secure around 15-18 seats resulting in an increase of 10-12 percent vote bank in this area.
Meanwhile, Congress will bear a huge loss of 8-10 percent seats this time. The reason responsible for this is the party conflicts between the leaders and no direct support to their party from MLAs. Moreover, the Channi factor was prominent in the Doaba region only; he will not be able to win seats in other regions of Punjab.
The Shiromani Akali Dal vote share will reduce by 5-10 percent in Punjab. On the other hand, BJP-alliance will not be able to leave a mark on its voters, especially on those who belong to 93 rural constituencies. This will happen due to Kissan Andolan. They will hardly get nearly 10 percent vote share which means around 4-10 seats in Punjab.
This year 50 lakh young voters and people below the poverty line will become the game changers in Punjab elections 2022. They are mostly in favour of AAP. However, who will win, who will lose, will be decided on 10th March.