THE SILENT HINDU VOTE

On the afternoon of November 3, images of Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and PPCC (Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee) chief Navjot Singh Sidhu at the Kedarnath temple in Uttarakhand began doing the rounds. The ‘peace pilgrimage’ was organised by the Congress’s new in-charge Harish Chaudhary to allow the warring leaders to bury their differences and to send out a message to the Hindus in Punjab that the party was mindful of their sensitivities.

Hindus constitute 38.5 per cent of the electorate in Punjab and are the biggest chunk of swing voters. There are 45 seats in which they are either in a majority or sizeable enough to influence results. In the past three decades, the 7-14 per cent Hindu swing vote has been a deciding factor in election outcomes. In 2017, 10.5 per cent