There might be election fatigue everywhere in the country but not in Punjab. The state has already conducted four sets of elections this year, and is gearing up for municipal corporation polls.

As a corollary, the Mann government has been able to hold only five Cabinet meetings the entire year. They were held on March 9, August 14, August 29, September 5 and October 5.

“It has been too much for us. In between, we had gone to other states also to campaign. It seems that I have been campaigning throughout the year,” said a sitting minister.

The election cycle started on March 16, when the code of conduct came into effect in Punjab for the Lok Sabha polls that were held in the state on June 1. The elections were a setback for the ruling Bhagwant Mann-led AAP that won only three of the 13 seats.

Ten days later, on June 10, the Jalandhar (West) by-election was announced — and the code of conduct again came into place in the Jalandhar district. The code was in place till July 10, the date of the bypoll, that was necessitated after the resignation of former AAP MLA Sheetal Angural who switched over to the BJP.

Jalandhar West saw an intense fight, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) going all out in its campaign efforts. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann almost camped in the seat and that paid off, with the AAP’s Mohinder Bhagat winning the bypoll.

In September, following a Supreme Court order, Punjab conducted panchayat elections after a gap of more than five years.

Again, the model code of conduct came into effect in over 13,000 villages across the state. The state witnessed heightened political activity with campaigns not just for panchayat polls. The entirety of the state’s leadership, excluding the Akali Dal which has been on the backfoot after poor performance in the recent polls, remained busy campaigning in neighbouring Haryana for the state’s October 5 Assembly elections.

On October 15, the day of the panchayat elections,the Election Commission of India announced bypolls in four Assembly segments — Gidderbaha, Barnala, Chabbewal and Dera Baba Nanak.

The bypolls were held on November 20 and were necessitated as sitting MLAs had gone on to contest the Lok Sabha elections. In the results declared on November 23, the ruling AAP won three Assembly bypolls in Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak and Chabbewal, all of which were vacated by Congress MLAs who were elected to the Lok Sabha. But in its prestige seat of Barnala, the nucleus of the state AAP, the party has lost to the Congress.

On November 26, the government would have to set the ball rolling for the elections to municipal bodies, which are to take place after a November 11 order by the supreme Court, directing the state government and State Election Commission (SEC) to complete the process within eight weeks.

The sitting minister quoted above said that the AAP government will finish its term in March 2027 and will virtually just have a year to work “properly” before more election prep begins.

Senior AAP spokesperson Neel Garg said that while a lot has gone into campaigning, “the AAP is still working”.