In the four-cornered contest in the Jalandhar parliamentary secondary poll, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leads the ongoing results and Congress appears to finish a distant second, even as BJP tried to upset the political apple cart by courting Hindu voters and Akali Dal trying to make political relevance after he was defeated to three seats in the Punjab elections last year compared to the 15 seats he won in the 2017 Assembly elections in the 117-member Punjab Vidhan Sabha.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was counting on making good on promises such as providing free energy to consumers and opening Aam Aadmi clinics (Mohalla clinics) along the lines of Arvind Kejriwal’s Delhi model.
Opposition parties had targeted AAP for failing to deliver on pre-election promises, mainly Rs 1,000 per month for women aged 18 and over.
The trends showing AAP in the lead came against the backdrop of one of its members in the council of ministers facing allegations of having “exploited” a man in an alleged sex tape submitted to Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit, but which is in the public domain even when the ‘victim’ released a video alleging ‘exploitation’ by the minister.
In presenting this report, AAP candidate Sushil Kumar Rinku, a congressional import candidate put forward by AAP, was leading by more than 20,000 votes his closest rival, Karamjit Kaur Chuadhary, the widow of the late MP Santokh Singh Chuadhary, whose death in January due to cardiac arrest during the Punjab leg of Raul Gandhiby Bharat Jodo Yatra required the Jalandhar bypoll.
The results are important for the AAP, which in a landslide victory in the February 2022 elections had lost four out of nine segments of the assembly in the parliamentary headquarters of Jalandhar, hinterland Doaba.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal held road shows in Jalandhar while campaigning for the party’s candidate. The AAP projected the government to fulfill pre-election promises and to be on track on outstanding promises it made.
Initial trends suggesting AAP victory in Jalandhar also suggest the popularity of the government after its humiliating defeat in the Sangrur parliamentary secondary poll, which was necessitated by then Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann taking over as CM of Punjab after AAP’s landslide victory of winning 92 seats in 117-member Punjab. Vidhan Sabha.
Singer and rapper Shubhdeep Singh Moosewala’s father, Balkaur Singh, has campaigned extensively against the ruling AAP demanding “justice” for his son’s murder. Balkaur has been very outspoken against the AAP government, raising question marks about the public withdrawal from his son’s safety and a broader investigation into the people behind his son’s death. Moosewala remains a legend with many fans even after death.
Trends in the survey results also showed that AAP dodged disappointment over the Amritpal fiasco, law and order and the Amritsar bombings. BJP He tried to score on this front while batting to be a nationalist party, but the overall scenario seemed to help AAP. The AAP lead also comes amid back-to-back explosions around the Golden Temple in the run-up to the election.
The Punjab Congress, the party known for its dissensions, formed a united front with the head of the Punjab Congress, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, opposition leader Partap Singh Bajwa and another star party activist, Navjot Singh Sidhu, who came together to seek votes for the congressional candidate, Karamjit Kaur. Chaudhary. But that didn’t seem to help the party, which has had a history of getting party candidates for the Parliament in consecutive elections, except for two in which the party’s candidate was not elected.
BJP tried to attract Sikh Dalit votes by fielding SAD Inder import candidate Iqbal Singh Atwal, pressing Sikh faces like former CM Captain Amarinder Singh and former finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa, failed to make much of an impact. BJP had left alone after breaking with its longest-standing ally over three farm laws that were repealed after farm protests. The BJP candidate is the son of former Akali veteran Charanjit Singh Atwal, who served as Lok Sabha Vice President and twice as Punjab Vidhan Sabha Chairman. The saffron party, in addition to winning the traditional urban votes, also tried to make inroads into rural pockets, contesting elections only after splitting with its former ally SAD.
Akali Dal’s attempt to invoke the late Parkash Singh Badal as “messiah” for the Scheduled Caste population by implementing a host of welfare schemes for them also didn’t seem to work for the party which has been in decline.
The lesson for the BJP is that it appears to be acting on its own after parting ways with Akali Dal as it aims to increase its presence in Punjab. In the event of a future alliance with SAD, the saffron party is positioned to negotiate, given the results.
“Saada nahi koyee kasur, saada ilaaka Sangrur (Not our fault, our area is Sangrur)” AAP can take a leaf out of this old age by saying to the region that Sangrur’s defeat was not the last word for the party’s political fortunes. Incidentally, Mann was elected Lok Sabha MP twice for Sangrur.
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