ISLAMABAD - The surprising results in bye-elections on the 20 Punjab assembly seats are undoubted reclaiming the throne of Lahore from the jaws of ruling party.
Hamza Shehbaz Sharif, after taking the charge as CM, has continuously been facing shocks from his political opponents. Through this shocking defeat in the bye-elections on maximum seats, he has registered his name as ‘unlucky CM’.
Grabbing only nine seats was not being considered as much difficult for the PML-N to stay as Chief Minister yet some factors have turned the table on it.
Political analysts viewed that the anti-establishment narrative by Khan has played a pivotal role in the victory of PTI in maximum seats. The same strategy, they argued, favoured the PML-N in the previous bye-polls during the regime of PTI.
The nomination of candidature by the PML-N was dubbed as a bad choice by many in and outside the party. Even some of insiders claimed that rift in fielding the candidates has annoyed the party memebers, who were interested to contest in the bye-polls. These dissidents might have played a negative role, which went in favour of PTI.
It is believed that PML-N leaders in their campaign could not properly tackle the Imran Khan’s narrative, as the PTI Chief in his arguments successfully blamed the PML-N government for the increased inflation in the country.
The increase in the prices of petroleum products also played an important role to change the minds of voters. Khan never forgot to pass the buck on to the PML-N government for the deteriorating economic situation in the country.
Some of the insiders in the PDM viewed that the PPP was not fully supporting the PML-N’s candidates in different constituencies. The support of allies in some of the constituencies could have helped in changing the results in the PML-N favour, they believed.
Obviously, the role of Election Commission of Pakistan in these bye-elections was much important. The management of conducting the elections on 20 seats was even appreciated by its critiques.