The first after the 2017 Punjab Assembly elections and probably the last before the Parliamentary polls in 2019, the Gurdaspur by-election on October 11 is all set to prove a litmus test for all major political parties in Punjab.
As all the parties have already switched into the poll mode, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced the schedule for the bye-election to Gurdaspur segment, imposing the model code of conduct with immediate effect.
The by-poll was necessitated after the sitting BJP MP and yesteryear Bollywood superstar Vinod Khanna passed away after a prolonged illness in April this year.
The saffron brigade, along with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), is going full throttle to retain the seat, but at the same time, is struggling to find a suitable replacement of three-time MP and former Union Minister.
BJP is mulling to field Khanna’s wife Kavita Khanna from the seat.
Making all out efforts, party’s State unit chief and Union Minister Vijay Sampla and party’s Punjab affairs in-charge Prabhat Jha have been camping in Gurdaspur constituency, holding conferences of party workers in all the nine Assembly segments falling under the segment.
The duo, in past three days, held booth-level conferences interacting with the party workers asking them to make the people aware about the achievements of the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre, and the “failure” of the Congress Government in the State in fulfilling its promises.
For the Congress, which broke the nationwide defeat jinx six months ago, the elections will be test for its popularity and acknowledgement of its performance.
“The party, since Day One, has been making attempts to project the Government as pro-active by initiating measures to waive of farm loans, generate jobs and tackle drug menace in the State,” a senior Congress leader told The Pioneer.
The “confident” Congress is banking on its initiatives to end VIP culture, set the ball rolling for farm loan waiver, claiming to successfully tackling the drug menace, generating employment opportunities for youngsters, among other things.
The party is likely to lay its bet on its Punjab unit president Sunil Kumar Jakhar, who is the hot favourite with all the seven party MlAs from the segment backing for his candidature. It has been learnt that the high command has also made up its mind to field Jakhar from the seat despite his two consecutive losses - in 2014 Parliamentary polls from Ferozepur, and in 2017 Assembly elections from his bastion Abohar.
Favourable result in the bye-election may also boost the Congress party’s morale in the neighbouring State of Himachal Pradesh which goes to poll before the year ends.
Capt Amarinder Singh is related to Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, and in all probability would campaign for the party in the hill State. The victory may indicate the acceptance of the party’s policies beyond the state boundaries, believed a senior party leader.
For the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which finished at a distant second in the Assembly polls after making tall claims to form the Government, it will be an assessment of its change in organisational structure.
The party, in its post-election analysis, changed the organisational structure, giving more powers to the State unit while withdrawing the team of party observers from the high command. It has given the charge to lead the party in the State to its most popular or controversial leader Bhagwant Mann.
Senior AAP leader said the party has been holding meetings in Assembly segments to chalk out its strategy for Gurdaspur by-poll, besides calling for candidature from the aspiring leaders.
AAP had fielded Sucha Singh Chhottepur, now expelled from the party and heading a regional outfit Apna Punjab Party, finished third with 1,73,376 votes. Congress’ Partap Singh Bajwa, the then State Congress chief, was made to bite dust in 2014 polls by BJP’s Khanna with a huge margin of nearly 1.36 lakh votes. Bajwa has now been made the Rajya Sabha MP.