Outside the Congress party office (left) and the AAP office at Lambi, the very constituency from where Captain Amarinder Singh is pitted against five-time CM Parkash Singh Badal. Lambi is a VIP assembly constituency in Muktsar district—the battleground for two of the state’s oldest politicians, 89-year-old chief minister Parkash Singh Badal from Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and 74-year-old former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh from Congress. Punjab voters are unimpressed by AAP’s 2015 performance in Delhi—if anything, several fear that if elected the state government may be remote-controlled by the AAP government in Delhi. Kejriwal has ruled himself out of the race to be chief minister but has said that the deputy chief minister will be a Dalit—holding out the promise of power to a segment that makes up around a third of Punjab’s population. “People are turning against the Badals (the chief minister and his family) so Congress is gaining from that.

Source: Mint January 31, 2017 17:48 UTC