The rising sun on Monday morning will see the rise and fall of not just the political parties in Punjab, but the changing fates of top leaders. By noon, it will become clear who all will emerge victorious in the bypolls in the two Assembly constituencies of the State — Patiala and Talwandi Sabo.
A total of eight contestants are in fray for Patiala seat, while there are seven candidates from Talwandi Sabo.
Thrown out of the power-game after the defeat in the parliamentary polls, former Union Minister Preneet Kaur’s chances of coming back to political forefront will be decided by the results.
Congress MlA-turned-Akali Dal candidate from Talwandi Sabo, Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu’s decision to desert “hand” to hold the “scale”, along with SAD’s decision to field him as its candidate for the bypoll, will also be put to test.
This is not all! After making its parliamentary debut in Punjab by winning four seats, Aam Aadmi Party’s charisma will also face litmus test.
The ballot battle of Patiala was nothing less than a fight for prestige with the Patiala Royals waging a tough war for salvaging their lost glory, and the SAD-BJP combine putting on a tough front for regaining their hold on the State.
As much the Congress wanted to win the seat to convert its recent defeat into victory and to catapult three-time Patiala MP back to power after she lost the parliamentary polls from the constituency, Akalis too wanted to show that they still are dominant in the State.
To hold the Patiala fort—known as Congress stronghold, the SAD has, for the first time in the recallable past, fielded a ‘Hindu’ candidate — Bhagwan Dass Juneja — to cash in on around 60 per cent Hindu votes in the constituency.
The royal city has been electing former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh as its MlA and his wife Preneet Kaur as its MP since decades. Winning the seat would be a role-reversal for the Royal Couple with Capt Amarinder in the Parliament and his wife in the State politics.
A look at the past elections show that out of 14 elections since 1957, Congress has won eight times with Capt Amarinder winning 2012 assembly polls from Patiala for the third consecutive time. SAD managed to bag the seat only for three times before Capt Amarinder chose to contest Assembly polls from here.
The bypolls to Patiala, necessitated after Capt Amarinder got elected to the lok Sabha from Amritsar seat, witnessed a triangular contest between Preneet Kaur, SAD’s Juneja and AAP’s Harjeet Singh Adaltiwala.
The bypolls to Talwandi Sabo, necessitated after sitting MlA Sidhu shifted loyalties towards SAD, too witnessed a triangular fight between Congress’s Harminder Singh Jassi, SAD’s Sidhu and AAP’s Baljinder Kaur. AAP rebel Balkar Singh, who was initially declared as AAP candidate, contested as an independent.
Here too, SAD would made an attempt to take charge of the Congress citadel after getting rival’s winning soldier, Sidhu, on its side. Win in the Talwandi Sabo constituency, that falls under Bathinda constituency represented by SAD MP and Union Minister Harsimrat Badal, is all the more important for SAD which is facing anti-incumbency.
In the 117-member Punjab Assembly, the ruling SAD has a strength of 56 MlAs, while its ally BJP has 12, with Congress having 44 members, other than three independent MlAs. To gain simple majority, SAD requires two more members to take its tally to 58.
For the two traditional rivals — Congress’ Jassi and SAD’ Sidhu, who have been pitted against each other earlier and defeated each other once, the win for either would establish one’s supremacy over the other.
It was Sidhu who made Jassi to shift his base from Talwandi Sabo to Bathinda urban segment. Jassi was first elected MlA from Talwandi Sabo constituency in 1992, and in 1997 Assembly polls, he defeated Sidhu, who had contested as SAD candidate by a margin of 3,193 votes.
In 2002 Assembly polls, Sidhu contested as an independent after SAD denied him ticket, and went on to beat Jassi, a Congress candidate, by a thin margin of 237 votes. Sidhu then joined the Congress, when it came to power in the State in 2002, that made Jassi to shift his base to Bathinda (urban) assembly segment.