Road to the election
The stopover in Lahore, to meet Shahbaz Taseer, must have provided the perfect buffer time for Bilawal in Punjab as he looks to kick start his election campaign from the south of the province. Surely, with half the election cycle over, PPP could not have neglected this province any longer; not that the one under its watch has been much to write home about during this time. But it’s not as if they haven’t tried to revive their fortunes here. Asif Zardari came here a couple of times, only to leave unhappy and unsuccessful.
And Bilawal, too, has been catapulted to Punjab more than once, but with similar results. Now, going by former PM Gilani’s statement, he will begin in Rahim Yar Khan, where the party found some support in the local elections, and play the youth card across the province and then the country to reignite the party spark and rally disgruntled, and defeated, workers. Both party chairman and co-chairman have attempted this before, of course, and it is not immediately clear just what strategy they can pursue to bring PPP back in the game except, perhaps, reshuffle the leadership structure and expect the new lot to do better.
That this assignment will test Bilawal’s political acumen is stating the obvious. To begin with, the party has not recovered since the ’13 rout and PTI and PML-N now play the tug of war in Punjab. And it doesn’t help that senior party leaders, especially his father, are out of the country with no telling when they might return. If things keep going the way they are going, there is the possibility that the kind of pressure that is keeping them away might subside at all till the election. And it’s not easy remote controlling a party resurrection from so far, especially if there is any truth to rumours about rifts within the party. No doubt Bilawal’s strategy factors in these concerns. It is now for him to present it to the voters and see how they react.
