M A I N   N E W S

Smaller parties keep fingers crossed
Naveen S Garewal/TNS

Chandigarh, March 5
On the eve of counting day for the Assembly elections, politicians and all those who funded the Punjab elections are keeping their fingers crossed.

Many are worried about reports of a hung House. Even as exit polls have come out with results in favour of one political party or the other, the absence of a palpable pro or anti-incumbency factor has confounded matters.

A clear victory for the Congress or the SAD-BJP alliance could settle the issue quietly and quickly. If the Congress falls short by a few seats, its first attempt would be to woo back the dissidents that had quit the party after being denied the ticket and contested the poll as Independents. There are at least four such candidates in Mukerian, Dera Bassi, Kotkapura and Ferozepur.

After delimitation, the number of seats in the Majha, Doaba and Malwa regions of Punjab has also undergone a slight change.

In the 2007 poll, Majha had 27 seats which is now down to 25. In Doaba, the number of seats has reduced from 25 to 23. The Malwa region that had 65 seats in 2007 has gained four seats and is now up to 69.

In the outgoing Vidhan Sabha, the Congress held 37 out of the 65 seats in the Malwa region, SAD had 19, five were held by the BJP and four by Independents.

The Malwa region generally decides which party forms the government in Punjab, but in 2007, the SAD-BJP alliance swept the Majha and Doaba regions by getting 24 out of 27 seats in Majha and 20 out of 25 in Doaba. This time, the Congress is hoping to win a large number of seats in the Majha and Doaba regions.