Sidhu can decidedly tilt scales in Kejriwal's favour in Punjab

So it's almost a settled affair that former BJP lawmaker Navjot Singh Sidhu is set to join the Aam Aadmi Party.

If I visualise how it's going to change campaigns of the Shiromani Akali Dal/BJP and Congress in Punjab, I can foresee no revolution in their canvassing at this stage.

Large banners with the scales - the election symbol of the SAD - will still feature veteran chief minister Parkash Singh Badal prominently, with smaller images of his son Sukhbir and daughter-in-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Text messages, television and social media advertisements will remain as routine as ever, themed on so-called development and infrastructure projects executed over the past ten years of the Akali-BJP rule.

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In a nutshell, the SAD campaign continues to centre on Badal senior, a time-tested glue that kept the party intact.

It was his face that brought the Akalis to power for a second term in a row in Punjab in 2012 in what created a new political history in the state.

It's he who can be widely credited for the SAD's durable alliance with the BJP despite widespread allegations that he compromised the original Sikh character of the party he led.

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Regardless of their economic impact on the state's exchequer, he perpetuated supplies of free electricity to Punjab farmers, expanded the subsidised atta-dal scheme for the poor, free bicycles for girl students under the Mai Bhago Vidya project, so on and so forth.

His son, Sukhbir Singh Badal, is a master election strategist. He is very well aware his father is still a bankable leader at an age of almost 90 now.

Thus, the Badals' campaign will keep employing what was the language of monarchical theorists in the early 17th century England - the language of political patriarchalism. For his party, the subtle projection of Parkash Singh Badal as the fatherly image of Punjab has worked in the past.

The party hopes it may work in 2017 again though the governing dynasty perhaps now faces larger public aversion because of accusations of massive corruption, over and above an anti-incumbency sentiment.

A large palm, bigger photos of Capt Amarinder Singh in the middle flanked by smaller pictures of party chief Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul Gandhi is what defines the Congress campaign in Punjab. There's no novelty here either. It revolves around the same old warhorses.

And here arrives Sidhu, under a new banner. He'll lend star power to the Kejriwal campaign, which would have turned monotonous otherwise.

He'll offer an eclectic mix of Sidhuisms, witticisms and couplets when he'll attack his opponents from the AAP podium, in rustic Punjabi if it's a village, in polite but sharp jargon if it's a city.

It's too early to forecast, but his debut in the AAP may well trigger pre-election defections from the fence-sitters, especially in the SAD-BJP coalition.

Precisely, he's a shot in the arm for the Kejriwal campaign. For others it's a status quo that the former cricketer will likely worsen soon.