Half way through the term, both Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal’s trusted soldiers on Thursday lost the electoral battle even as the voters in three constituencies, out of total four that went to poll on Monday, exercised their franchise in favour of the Congress.
The ruling Congress party managed to bag three — Jalalabad, Mukerian, and Phagwara — out of four seats with only one — Dakha — being grabbed by the Akali Dal. However, state’s principal opposition party — Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — has failed to make a mark, even failing to retain Dakha assembly segment it won during 2017 elections.
Even as the win has put a stamp of approval on the Congress Government’s programmes and policies while further endangering Akali Dal’s political survival in the State, the SAD’s loss in its president’s political bastion Jalalabad and Chief Minister’s lieutenant’s defeat in Dakha has caused some embarrassment to both Sukhbir Badal and Capt Amarinder.
Congress’ Raminder Singh Awla gained the Jalalabad seat by defeating his Akali rival Raj Singh Dibipur by 16,663 votes, despite a Congress rebel Jagdeep Singh Kamboj also in fray.
Sukhbir owed the party candidate’s defeat in Jalalabad, the constituency held by him before he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Ferozepur, to the misuse of all resources, State power and money.
“Capt Amarinder even brought in mafia and musclemen from outside the State, to scuttle a free and fair election at Jalalabad against a SAD-BJP candidate who is famous for his gentle and honest ways,” said Sukhbir.
Awla bagged 49 per cent (76098) of the total votes polled in Jalalabad which is considered to be SAD’s stronghold as the party had represented the seat in the Assembly since 2007. SAD candidate was polled 59,465 (38.52 perent) votes while AAP’s Mohinder Singh bagged 11,301 (7.32 per cent) votes.
In a blow to the ruling party, SAD’s Manpreet Singh Ayali defeated Congress nominee and the Chief Minister’s political secretary Capt Sandeep Singh Sandhu by a margin of 14,672 votes in Dakha.
The seat fell vacant following the resignation of former AAP leader and Supreme Court lawyer HS Phoolka from the state Assembly.
Describing party’s defeat in Dakha as “unfortunate”, the Chief Minister lauded Capt Sandhu for giving a tough fight in his first election. “I had wanted and aimed for winning all four seats in these bypolls but one can’t win 100 percent.The losing candidates should not take such failures to heart,” he said, recalling that he had also lost his first two elections.
Ayali, also former MLA and the former Chief Parliamentary Secretary, received 66,297 (50.3 per cent) votes, while Congress’ Capt Sandhu received 51,625 (39.17 per cent) votes. AAP’s Amandeep Singh Mohie finished at distant fourth place with just 2,804 (2.13 per cent) votes, even lagging behind Bains Brothers’ Lok Insaaf Party’s Sukhdev Singh Chak who received 8,441 (6.4 percent) votes.
The ruling Congress managed to retain Mukerian assembly seat, which fall vacant following the defeat of its MLA Rajnish Kumar Babbi. Congress has fielded Babbi’s wife Indu Bala who succeeded by winning the seat though with a thin margin of 3,440 votes.
Indu Bala bagged 53,910 (46.62 percent) votes to defeat BJP’s Jangi Lal Mahajan who gave her a tough fight by bagging 50,470 (43.65 percent) votes. AAP’s Prof Gurdhian Singh Multani could receive just 8,261 (7.14 percent) votes.Congress also managed to snatch Phagwara assembly seat from the BJP, as Congress candidate and former IAS officer Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal defeated BJP’s senior leader Rajesh Bagha by 26,116 votes — which is the highest winning margin in the state byelections. Dhaliwal bagged 49,215 (47.62 per cent) votes, followed by 23,099 (22.35 per cent) by BJP’s Bagha.
Phagwara, a dalit dominated constituency, saw the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Bhagwan Dass bagging the third spot by receiving 15,990 (15.47 per cent) votes, pushing AAP’s Santosh Kumar Gogi to the fourth place with just 2,910 (2.82 per cent) votes.
Thee Chief Minister congratulated all the Congress workers in Punjab for working hard as a united force to make the party’s continued run of poll victories possible.