As the saffron brigade in Punjab is gearing up to contest the ensuing elections — bye election to
Sangrur parliamentary constituency and elections to four municipal corporations — alone,
Punjab's former Chief Minister and Punjab Lok Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh on
Tuesday announced that his new political outfit and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will jointly
fight the elections to be held for four municipal corporations of Ludhiana, Patiala, Amritsar, and
Jalandhar.
Capt Amarinder’s announcement came days after the state BJP unit, under the leadership of
Punjab BJP in-charge Dushyant Gautam and state president Ashwani Sharma, had held a
brainstorming session on Wednesday last to discuss the impending polls. In the meeting, the state
leadership had arrived at a consensus that the BJP should contest the elections on its own, instead
of in alliance with Capt Amarinder or any other party.
BJP faced a resounding defeat in the recently-concluded state assembly polls — which it
contested as the “big brother” in alliance with Capt Amarinder’s nascent PLC and Akali stalwart
Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa’s SAD (Sanyukta).
Dushyant Gautam had also declared that the party was preparing to contest Sangrur
parliamentary seat bypoll, and four corporation polls alone, and the final decision will be taken
by the central leadership which will be accepted to all.
Sangrur Lok Sabha seat fell vacant after two-time MP Bhagwant Mann was elected from Dhuri
assembly segment, and went on to become the Chief Minister. A day before taking oath, Mann
resigned from the Lok Sabha seat.
Besides, the four major municipal corporations — Jalandhar, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala —
are scheduled to go to polls by the end of this year.
As BJP has a considerable support base in these cities, it wanted to contest polls on its own.
However, after Tuesday’s meeting, BJP may tie up with Capt Amarinder’s party for local body
polls.
The meeting was attended by the PLC candidates, who contested the February 20 assembly
elections, besides party’s top leadership including Bharat Inder Singh Chahal, Capt Amarinder’s
son Raninder Singh, and daughter Jai Inder Kaur. Punjab BJP’s general secretary Subhash
Sharma also attended the meeting.
The meeting took stock of the prevailing situation in the State and also reviewed the performance
of the party candidates in the assembly elections.
Subhash Sharma, addressing the meeting, said that although the BJP-PLC alliance could not win
many seats, a strong foundation has already been laid down. “While the immediate focus will
definitely be on municipal elections which are due within less than a year now, the alliance will
be a formidable force in 2024 General Elections,” he said.
BJP leader predicted that 2024 election in Punjab will be primarily between the BJP-PLC
alliance and the AAP with Congress and the Akali being reduced to margins.
Notably, BJP could win just two seats out of total 73 it contested in assembly elections this year.
Notwithstanding, BJP is looking at the silver lining — increase in its vote share, its expansion in
Punjab where it has all along been playing a second fiddle to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD),
and foraying into unexplored territories.
In 2017, the party won three seats out of 23 it contested with a vote share of 5.3 percent, which
this time (in 2022), has increased to 6.6 percent — witnessing an increase of 1.3 percent.
Of the BJP’s 73 candidates, 74 percent, that is 54, lost its security deposits. At the same time,
PLC’s all candidates, except Capt Amarinder, forfeited their security deposits.
BJP’s two candidates who managed to wade through Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) wave were BJP
state president Ashwani Sharma, who defeated Congress’s sitting MLA Amit Vij in Pathankot by
a margin of 7,759 votes; and Jangi Lal Mahajan, who defeated AAP’s Gurdhian Singh Multani
by securing 2,511 more votes.
Capt Amarinder said that 2024 General Elections were crucial for the country as there is a need
for stable and a strong government; and given the geopolitical situation prevailing in the world,
in view of Russia-Ukraine war, the country needed a stable, mature and strong leadership, which
the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is providing.
Lashing out at ruling AAP, Capt Amarinder said that there was already a strong sense of
disillusionment against the government sooner than it was expected. “Not only had AAP
Government backed out on several promises and commitments, it had also hurt the pride of
Punjabis by usurping their power and rights...Punjabis will never tolerate an outsider like Arvind
Kejriwal running the government from Delhi,” he said.
Responding to the demands of party leaders that he should start moving across the State, Capt
Amarinder said that he will soon be announcing his state-wide programme. In the first round, he
said, he will visit all the district headquarters followed by assembly segments.