Continuing with its victory spree, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday bagged not just the Dhuri Assembly seat but also absolute majority with 59 legislators in the 117-member Punjab Vidhan Sabha.
However, in an apparent attempt to downplay SAD’s victory and its loss, Congress blamed the ruling alliance for “misusing the official machinery”, instead of reflecting on it’s on mistakes including growing internal strife between the senior leadership. The by-poll to Dhuri seat was necessitated after sitting Congress MlA Arvind Khanna, a close confidante of former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, resigned from the seat in January this year.
In the absence of the Aam Aadmi Party, Dhuri bypoll ended up to be a direct contest between the two major political parties — SAD and the Congress. Even as the results are hardly expected to affect the political equations in the State, it has put the SAD in a stronger position in coalition by ending their dependence on the alliance partners, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with which it is sharing weak ties.
For Congress, the number of MlAs fell from 46 in 2012 to 43 now. The campaign against the State Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa may became shriller with his rivals getting another chance to blame him for party’s one more loss.
With Dhuri ballot battle not just being for the political supremacy but to keep alive the family legacy, SAD candidate Gobind Singh longowal, political heir of former SAD chief Sant Harchand Singh longowal, has defeated the Congress candidate Simar Partap Singh Barnala, young Barnala scion, by a huge margin of 37,501 votes.
The former Minister and three-time MlA longowal bagged 67,596 votes out of the total 1,10,951 votes polled during April 11 by-election. On the other hand, total 30,095 votes were polled in favour of Simar, a political greenhorn who was contesting his first ever election.
SAD (Amritsar) candidate, Surjit Singh Kalabula, who was considered to give a tough fight to the two major political parties, managed to get just 7,554 votes, while the “shoe-thrower”, Vikram Singh Dhanaula, who threw shoe at Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at a public function, got just 835 votes. A total of 1071 voters exercised the ‘none of the above’ (NOTA) option.
For SAD, which has been in power for almost eight years now in alliance with the BJP, win in Dhuri by-poll was third win in by-election since it has formed the Government for the second consecutive time. Even as the SAD had registered a record victory by winning two successive assembly polls in 2007 and 2012 in coalition with the BJP, it had to bank upon its ally BJP to form the Government in the State.
The party, in 2007, won 49 seats and its ally BJP 19 to form the government in the State replacing Congress led by Capt Amarinder Singh. It again was short of majority at its own in 2012 assembly polls as the party could secure 56 seats — just three of complete majority. Its ally, the BJP, bagged 12 seats.
Congress once again failed to cash in on the anti-Government wave in the State with the party leadership remaining pre-occupied in their battle for supremacy. Instead of putting up a united front, it remained a divided house — refusing to learn any lessons from its previous back-to-back defeats.
The party lost 2012 State Assembly polls, followed by three in bye-elections, and then in 2014 lok Sabha polls, with internal bickering emerging as one of the major reason for its poor show. Its senior leadership, Capt Amarinder and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Singh Bajwa, were more interested in outdoing each other in the number-game of their supporters rather than the ruling alliance — leaving the field open for the Akali Dal.
Congress, which remained a divided-house during the entire campaigning period, has blamed the “misuse of official machinery and money power by the ruling Akali Dal” for its defeat, and not the infighting. Bajwa, who was behind Simar’s candidature, also cited “a big communication gap between the Congress cadre and Barnalas” as one of the reason for party’s loss.
At the same time, he maintained that no individual could be held responsible for the outcome of Dhuri Assembly bye-election as the victory or defeat was a “collective process”. Meanwhile, the State Chief Electoral Officer VK Singh expressed thanks to the voters of Dhuri constituency for having enthusiastically participated in the electoral process, and also to the Sangrur Administration, officers and the staff on election duty and police and paramilitary forces for fair and peaceful conduct of the electoral process. He also thanked the political parties for their unstinted support and cooperation during the Dhuri by-poll.
Akali Dal has nothing to boast about election result: Capt
Maintaining that there was nothing for the Akalis to boast about the Dhuri bye-election result, Congress Deputy leader in the lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh said that at the same time, a leader should also have moral courage to own the responsibility for the consequences.
Reacting to PPCC president Partap Singh Bajwa blaming him for the defeat, the former Chief Minister asked, “What is he (Bajwa) there for if I am to be blamed for everythingIJ” “It was Bajwa who first asserted that he did not need big faces like him to campaign in Dhuri and now he is running away from the responsibility and trying to put the blame somewhere else…It is strange that instead of questioning the misuse of official machinery by the ruling Akali Dal, Bajwa is trying to blame me,” said Capt Amarinder.
“Does he mean to bail Akalis out for all their sins of omission and commission they committed during the campaign,” he questioned. Referring to Bajwa’s charge that he went away with all the MlAs, Capt Amarinder asked him better to introspect as what was actually wrong with him and why he was not able to carry along anyone.
“Your candid admission that the MlAs, like other leaders, are not prepared to listen to you should be enough reason for you to introspect instead of blaming others”, he told Bajwa.
The former Chief Minister said, first Bajwa did not want him to campaign and then he himself did not get serious about the campaigning as he never stayed put in Dhuri. “At best it was a half hearted campaign by Bajwa”, he remarked while referring to his frequent jaunts to Delhi, Chandigarh and other places while leaving the battlefield open.