Captain’s birthday gift!

The Congress’ stunning victory margin in Punjab is almost like the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh triumph, except that even such a prosperous frontline state isn’t as central to Indian politics as populous UP. The impressive win with a near two-thirds majority in the 117-member House is mostly due to one man, Capt. Amarinder Singh (whose 75th birthday, coincidentally, fell on Saturday), whom the Congress had wisely chosen to lead the campaign. The party’s youth brigade, led by vice-president Rahul Gandhi, didn’t have the kind of say it may have wished, which may have helped as this election seemed to favour experience over youth. Rural Sikhs seem to have joined their urban counterparts to bring back the Congress, led by Amarinder Singh, as the party appearing as the only viable alternative in the state.

The AAP may have finished second, but that was a consequence of the rout that the Akalis faced, done in by the anti-incumbency factor fuelled by the Badals’ rising unpopularity, with the family virtually ruling the state over two terms. The AAP’s national ambitions, dented badly in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, may have been stoked again with a good performance in Punjab. But Arvind Kejriwal’s shortcomings, as ore a leader of a protest movement than a political party, may have worked against the AAP. Not being based on language, religion or caste factors may in theory have swayed people to accept it as a change-maker, particularly due to its strong anti-corruption plank. However, the AAP came a cropper after avidly hoping that it could spread its wings beyond Delhi.