The ruling parties, particularly those governed by the families of regional parties seldom lose a by-election. This has happened in Moga by-poll also. But even his chronic critics cannot deny the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh the credit of his party nominee Joginderpal Jain’s victory by a big margin of over 18,000 votes.

The by-election’s outcome has once again proved Sukhbir’s organisational and micro-level election management skills. The Moga victory is the last in the series of the electoral successes Sukhbir has been scoring since 2007.

Moga victory can be described as another proverbial feather in the Akali Dal president’s cap. But his nominee Jain’s re-entry into Punjab Assembly lends a worrisome dimension to Punjab politics. It has taken place amidst intense debate in the country about the persons with criminal record entering Parliament and state Assemblies.

Not long ago, Punjab could boast of being one of the few states which had minimum number, if at all, of persons with criminal background as members of the state Assembly. But during the last some years, particularly in the last two, some of the political leaders, particularly of the Akali Dal who faced criminal cases and were even convicted by the courts had entered the Assembly. The most prominent among them was the former SGPC president and Minister Bibi Joginder Kaur who was jailed for five years for abetting abduction and abortion of her daughter. She also was charged with murdering his daughter but was acquitted by the court. Two other Akali ministers also faced criminal cases. All the three had to quit the ministry.

However, Sukhbir alone cannot be charged with facilitating the entry into the state Assembly of Joginderpal Jain against whom some of the cases registered during the Akali-BJP regime are still pending ion the courts. The Congress is equally responsible for bestowing Jain the honour of becoming an MLA. In 2012 he was given the party ticket to contest the Moga seat which he won. In his nearly two decades of political career, Jain had changed political loyalties a number of times. He earned the stigma from the rival party of being a turncoat whenever he shifted his loyalty from one to the other party.

By first engineering the tainted Jain’s defection from the Congress and then ensuring his re-entry into the Assembly, Sukhbir has earned the dubious distinction of injecting the virus of defection politics in Punjab’s body politic. There is every possibility of the virus spreading to further pollute Punjab politics like what Haryana had witnessed during the first two years of its birth in 1966.

Ushering in defection politics is Sukhbir’s latest act indicating the falling standards of public life. It also shows mindset of autocrats and perpetrators of Emergency the symptoms of which had started appearing during the first term of the Akali-BJP rule. By recently making the defeated and winning Akali MLAs as their “illaqa” (constituency) incharge to deal with the police and civil administrations in their constituencies Sukhbir’s action amounted to further politicizing the civil and police administration

The Jain episode has surprised the admirers of the chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s ‘passive stance’ on the goings-on in his party and the government. During his long political career he had followed reasonably appreciative standards of public life. What pains his well-wishers most is the support he extended to Jain who is facing criminal cases.

More shocking has been the BJP’s stand on the Jain issue. The party which had refused a second term as the party president to its RSS-backed president Nitin Gadkari for alleged irregularities in running his businesses campaigned for Jain who is facing criminal cases.

The Moga by-poll’s outcome is bound to change political equations in Punjab. It has already rekindled stirrings in the Congress. For long, there has been a question mark on Capt. Amarinder Singh’s future as the party president. The Moga by-poll’s outcome may prompt the high command to hasten its decision on the issue. His unusual proactive role in Moga, his popular base and the absence of a leader of his status does not rule out the possibility of the high command retaining him as PCC chief at least till the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

In the era of pragmatist politics, it is virtually impossible for ideologues to emerge as an effective political entity. Punjab Political Party of Badal’s nephew Manpreet Singh Badal must have learnt this lesson in the 2012 Assembly elections and in Moga by-poll. Although the party had an alliance with the politically marginalized Left and Surjit Singh Barnala-led Longowal Akali Dal, its candidates lost security deposits. The setbacks suffered by the Congress and the PPP may bring them together for fighting the 2014 polls.

What lends added significance to the Moga verdict is the Akali Dal’s gaining of its own majority in the Assembly. With the support of the two Independents who are its associated members, the party’s tally in the 117 member House is now 59. This has ended its dependence on the BJP. The saffron party no longer enjoys the immense bargaining power it had during the Akali-BJP 2007-2012 term because of its record strength of 19 MLAs.

Because of the BJP’s dependence on strong regional parties for returning to power in Delhi there is no possibility of the party parting company at least till the 2014 Parliament poll with Akali Dal even after the loss of its bargaining power in Punjab.

The key to the Akali-BJP’s future relationship depends on the success of Sukhbir’s strategy to make the Akali Dal a secular entity. He has already noticeably succeeded in expanding his party’s base among the BJP’s popular support base of urban Hindus.

If Sukhbir succeeds in converting Akali Dal into a truly secular party, it will be a positive development for Punjab. (IPA Service)