Jalandhar: After the shock in the Lok Sabha elections, the huge victory of AAP surprised many people
Jalandhar: Jalandhar West voters have a history of going with the state government and they did the same in the July 10 by-election, the results of which were declared today. Voters had supported Bhagat Chunni Lal in 2007 and 2012 when the Akali-BJP was in power. In 2017, they supported the Congress, in 2022 the AAP and this time again they supported the AAP when the Akali Dal government came to power. Similarly, the AAP, which had come down from 92 to 90 seats after the Lok Sabha elections due to the resignation of Sheetal Angural and Gurmeet S Meet Hayer becoming the MP from Sangrur, has won one more seat to take its tally to 91 seats. There are four more assembly by-elections in Punjab, which could completely change this figure in the coming months. Leaders and workers of almost all parties knew very well that AAP would win the election, but everyone estimated that this victory would be by a margin of maximum 10,000-15,000 votes. Just as no one expected Charanjit Channi to win by 1.75 lakh votes in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election, similarly AAP leaders also did not expect the party’s landslide victory of 37,325 votes. AAP got 55,246 votes, which was 40,000 more than the votes the party got from this area in the June 1 Lok Sabha election. Apart from distribution of freebies and use of money and muscle power by the government, which most rival leaders are alleging, the biggest factor against the Congress was its less coordinated campaign on the ground. A senior party leader said, “The three big leaders of our party – PCC chief Amrinder S Raja Warring, LoP Pratap Bajwa and Jalandhar MP Charanjit Singh Channi – had gathered at White Diamond Resort for a workers’ meeting about 10 days before the election, but there has been no cohesion since then. The big leaders did not take local leaders along for road shows, media interactions and other events. Most councillors had left the party and those who remained did not campaign much due to local rivalries. In short, our campaign lacked the necessary coordination and attack against the government.” BJP leader Amit Taneja said: “In this election, AAP involved 112 leaders and workers of our party. They distributed goods for free under the patronage of the government. We caught them red-handed and even handed them over to the police. The police remained mute spectators and did not register any case on any of the complaints we lodged, including the presence of outside AAP workers on the polling day.” However, AAP leaders are dismissing all other factors. AAP minister Balkar Singh said, “It is only Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s work that has brought us this success. He stayed on the ground and led our campaign, which has yielded results.” Akali Dal’s claim of community’s support fails Akali Dal candidate Surjit Kaur’s claim of getting support of the Sirkiband Rajput community, which has over 15,000 voters in Jalandhar West, failed as she managed to get only 1,242 votes. The Akali Dal team led by Sukhbir Badal had withdrawn support from her and she got the support only of the rebel group led by PS Chandumajra, Jagir Kaur and Gurpartap Wadala. Akali Dal candidate MS KP had got 2,326 votes in the Lok Sabha elections held last month. The Sukhbir Badal group had announced support to BSP candidate Binder Lakha but they too managed to get only 734 votes. This was slightly higher than NOTA’s 687 votes and the 236 votes of some independent candidates like Neetu Shatranwala.
