In the battle for the top post, Bhagwant Singh Mann, largely riding on the strong anti–incumbency sentiments in the State against both the traditional parties and the massive desire to change the government, emerged as the most preferred choice among voters, comfortably ahead of Charanjit Singh Channi, the first Dalit Chief Minister of Punjab.
As the Lokniti-CSDS survey indicates, nearly two in every five voters spontaneously (i.e. without being prompted or given any names) backed Mr. Mann on being asked about who would they like to see as the next CM. Also, among the supporters of Mr. Mann, 91% were AAP voters while the rest were non-AAP voters. Whereas, among all the AAP voters, 81% wanted Mr. Mann as CM.
Mr. Channi, projected as the face of the Congress amid unrest within the party, was the top choice for a little over one-fifths of electors — 15 percentage points lower than Mr. Mann’s.
Mr. Mann’s popularity for the chief ministerial post can also be gauged by the fact that close to a third of previous supporters of both the traditional parties, the Congress and the Akali Dal, also chose him over Mr. Channi and the Badals, respectively. Mr. Channi’s background indicated the Congress had its caste matrix worked out.
Caste matrix
The survey finds Mr. Mann to have outshone Mr. Channi across all castes and communities, except Hindu Dalits where the latter was found to be way ahead.
The OBC Sikhs were found to be most vociferous in their support for Mr. Mann with the gap between the two leaders being 36 points. This was even higher than Mr. Mann’s lead among his own community, Jat Sikhs, where he was 27 points ahead of Mr. Channi.
Mr. Channi lagged behind by 17 points in popularity even among Dalit Sikhs.
Manjesh Rana is a Research Associate at Lokniti-CSDS. Varun Goel is an Assistant Professor at LRDAV College at Jagraon, Punjab
