India, June 1 -- The poll bugle was sounded in Punjab last week with the results of the local body polls. The Aam Aadmi Party, stung by the defection of seven Rajya Sabha members and a plethora of corruption charges, must be smiling. It won the largest chunk of local body seats, leaving the Congress a distant second. It is a boost for the beleaguered party and its embattled chief minister Bhagwant Mann, who has courted controversy regularly. It is a sign that the party machinery on the ground is alive and kicking, and Mann's welfare agenda is popular. In a volatile state where the 2021 farm law protests fundamentally reshaped politics, the local body polls are a virtual semi-final for the assembly elections just months away. The AAP, whic...