Chandigarh: As Punjab votes on Sunday, February 20, all eyes are on the ten key contests. The outcomes of these will impact the future course of Punjab politics.Punjab is already at the cusp of a generation shift in this election. Two known faces who ruled Punjab interchangeably for the last 25 years – Parkash Singh Badal and Amarinder Singh – are no longer chief ministerial candidates.Two of the three main chief ministerial faces for the 2022 polls – Charanjit Singh Channi of the Congress and Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – represent changing political dynamics in the state.Battle of mighty sardars The contest between once friends and now bitter enemies Punjab Congress Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia from Amritsar (East) is being seen as the most intense fight of the 2022 Punjab polls. Stakes are much higher for Sidhu than Majithia, who before the polls projected himself as a worthy chief ministerial face by promising to demolish the existing power structure of mafia and patronage in Punjab.But his own party ditched him and declared Channi to be the candidate instead. A loss for Sidhu means quite a major setback to his political career. A win will keep him in the running.AAP’s Jeevanjot Kaur and BJP’s former IAS officer Jagmohan Singh Raju are also in the race. Sidhu is currently the MLA from the constituency, which he won by a margin of over 40,000 votes in 2017.Senior Badal’s last battle Fighting his 13th election from Lambi in Muktsar district, SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal has lost just once in his 75 years of political journey. Due to his age, he was not keen on fighting polls and had already made way for his son, Sukhbir Singh Badal, as the party’s chief ministerial face. But he was brought back as it has been a do-or-die situation for the Akali party.As per ground reports, Parkash has been in tough competition against AAP’s Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, while Congress’s nominee, Jagpal Singh Abul Khurana, and BJP-Punjab Lok Congress’s Rakesh Dhingra are newcomers. In 2017, Parkash defeated Amarinder, who was then fighting from two seats –Lambi and his home turf, Patiala.Will a new star rise from Dhuri?Dhuri, the seat of AAP’s chief ministerial candidate and sitting MP Bhagwant Mann in Sangrur district, has been in the spotlight.Congress’s sitting MLA, Dalvir Goldy, is in the fight, yet Mann has been riding high in terms of public perceptions.In Mann’s electoral victories in the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections, he secured substantial leads in the Dhuri segment. The party is confident it will register the highest voting margin from here and also hopes to form the next government in Punjab.Former Sangrur MLA Parkash Chand Garg is SAD’s nominee from here.AAP CM candidate Bhagwant Mann shows his inked finger after casting his vote for Punjab Assembly polls, in Mohali, Sunday, Feb 20, 2022. Photo: PTIChange in the CongressAfter Amarinder’s unceremonious exit, Channi has emerged Congress’s new poster boy for ‘change’.Sitting MLA from Chamkur Sahib in Punjab Ropar district, the incumbent chief minister has also challenged AAP in its stronghold in Bhadaur, a rural seat in Barnala district.The fight is interesting as his main opponent from Bhadaur, AAP candidate Labh Singh, who repairs mobiles, pitched himself a real ‘aam aadmi (common man)’, tearing into Channi’s ‘gareeb ghar ka beta (son of a poor family)’ slogan.In both Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur, AAP has made illegal sand mining a major issue after the Enforcement Directorate arrested Channi’s nephew over his alleged involvement last month.Channi, Punjab’s first Dalit chief minister, is the only candidate in this election fighting from two seats, a gamble Congress used to consolidate the Dalit vote bank in Punjab.Fighting for survivalThe man who steered Congress to victory in the 2017 elections is now at a crossroads.Amarinder has been winning hands down from his home turf – Patiala Urban – since 2002. He is trying his luck from here again; the only difference is that he is no longer part of the Congress.After losing the chief ministerial post last September, he floated his own party, Punjab Lok Congress, and later forged an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a faction group of the SAD led by Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa. He is hell bent on defeating his former party.It will be interesting to note if he has the last laugh after the election verdict, or if this election will finally put a lid on his half-century-long political career, which began right here in Patiala in 1970.His opponents from Patiala are AAP’s Ajit Pal Kolhi and Congress’s Vishnu Sharma.Test of leadershipSAD’s chief ministerial candidate, Sukhbir, is in the fray from Jalalabad, a town on the Indo-Pak border in Fazilka district, for the fourth time in a row.He appears well placed to regain the seat he won in 2017 by over 18,000 votes, but his real challenge is much bigger. His party is in a do-or-die situation after a humiliating defeat in the 2017 polls.For the first time, he has been leading the party from the front. This election, many believe, is a test of his leadership. Internal rumblings against Sukhbir cannot be ruled out if the party fails. A faction of the SAD led by Sukhdev Dhindsa has already parted ways with the party.Picking the wrong battle?The year-long farmers’ movement gave birth to a farmers ‘ party, Sanyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM), in Punjab.Its face is key farm leader and chief ministerial candidate Balbir Singh Rajewal, who is fighting a tough battle from his home turf, Samrala assembly constituency in Ludhiana district.Rajewal is up against AAP’s Jagtar Singh Diyalpura, SAD’s Paramjit Singh Dhillon and Congress’s Rupinder Singh Raja Gill. Increasing the trouble for Rajewal is sitting MLA Amrik Singh Dhillion, who is fighting independently after being denied a ticket by the Congress.This seat is a test to see if the decision of a section of farmers to float a new political party was the right one – or was ill-conceived, as other farm unions allege.Rajewal is blamed for dividing the farmers’ movement and eroding the goodwill that unions earned after the successful stint outside Delhi’s gates. It will be interesting to see if he proves his detractors wrong or goes down in history as someone whose political aspirations overrode the larger public cause.Will Modi’s ‘magic’ work?Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma is banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity to bolster his poll prospects in the Hindu-dominated seat of Pathankot.He is locked in a fierce three-way contest with sitting Congress MLA Amit Vij and AAP’s Vibhuti Sharma.Modi also addressed a big rally in Pathankot on February 16 in support of Sharma.As far as the BJP is concerned, the farmers’ protest still weighs heavily. Although it is clear that the party is not facing the kind of resistance seen during the protests, the farmers’ antipathy towards the saffron party continues.In media interviews, Sharma claimed that the farm bills row had no bearing on the result of his urban seat. Well, the outcome will decide if Modi’s ‘magic’ soothes the strong peasantry resentment against the party.Elephant in the room?The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), with its elephant poll symbol, has been eyeing a revival in Punjab after it entered an alliance with SAD. At the centre of its revival plan is Kapurthala district’s Phagwara assembly constituency, where BSP Punjab chief Jasvir Singh Garhi is in the fray.The fight in this seat is not easy. The BJP chose its former state president and chairperson of the National Commission for Schedule Caste, Vijay Sampla, while the Congress retained its sitting MLA and former IAS officer Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal. AAP trusted former Congress leader minister Joginder Singh Mann, who is believed to have strong influence in the area as he has been a three time-MLA from the constituency.A singing starEntry of controversial Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, who was earlier booked for promoting gun culture and violence through his songs, has added glamour to the Punjab elections. As the Congress candidate from Mansa, he is banking on his star appeal.A host of Punjabi movie stars and singers too campaigned for him. With over 70 million followers on Instagram and one crore subscribers on Youtube, he certainly has the youth on his side. But the battle is not easy.AAP’s Vijay Singla and SAD’s Prem Kumar Arora are targeting him over his past controversies and deeming him a ‘show-off’ rather than a youth icon.