The other day when the winter rain lashed Chandigarh, Capt Amarinder Singh was delayed for his campaign trips. In the next couple of days the sun came out; some warmth returned. And so did smiles at Captain’s room — a big hall, a royal redoubt — where his close aides heard Rahul Gandhi announce the Captain being made the chief ministerial candidate of the Congress. Everybody knew the party was pretty late in formalizing something due for long. It is said to be his last election. In the party’s backyard lie two successive defeats under his watch. Yet he has gained in many ways over the years, so much so that many say he has dwarfed the party in Punjab. He is gutsy. “That’s why,” says a supporter, “he is contesting from two places”. One, against former Army Chief JJ Singh in Patiala and, two, Chief Minister Badal in Lambi. Is the Captain fighting on too many fronts? This time the contest is essentially triangular. “There were triangular contests in the past, but not of the existing scale,” he says.“I can say for sure that there is a strong anti-incumbency wave across the state against the ruling SAD-BJP. It won’t be a surprise if the alliance ends up with the lowest-ever figure in the Assembly on March 11, the day the result is out”, says Amarinder. So, how many seats for the Congress? “I am confident of winning 70 seats, AAP would get 30 and the SAD-BJP combine may get 15-17 seats. We will do well in Majha, Doaba and in parts of Malwa. We do not face any big challenge in these areas. But there will be tough fights with AAP in some parts of core Malwa area, especially the Sangrur-Barnala-Mansa region,” he says.What are the issues dominating the election? “The sacrilege of the holy books weighs heavy on the minds of the people. We will go all out to find the culprits. These incidents are akin to the ones that took place in the early 1980s. I squarely blame Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who has failed to resolve even a single such case.”The other issues, he says, are drugs, failure of the rural economy and crisis in farm sector, unemployment, migration of the industry, poor law and order and highly politicized governance. “I promise to sort these out on a priority,” says Amarinder.The party is facing the rebels in some constituencies. “We know campaign of some rebels is being funded by a senior Akali leader. We have been able to convince some rebels to withdraw. But there are certain habitual party hoppers; we don’t think we’d approach them,” says Amarinder.The Captain is banking heavily on AAP’s ‘outsider’ tag. “AAp is being directly run by Kejriwal’s team from Delhi. It has not recovered from the telling blow following Sucha Singh Chhotepur’s removal. This will hugely affect AAP prospects in parts of Majha-Doaba”.The other factor that the Captain counts on is his performance as Chief Minister for full five years (2002-07). “The people know I do not make false promises. They will prefer experience over inexperience (of AAP),” he says.