Chandigarh: The by-election to the Jalandhar West (reserved) assembly segment in Punjab on Wednesday is a battle of prestige for the chief minister Bhagwant Mann and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the backdrop of party’s drubbing in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
The party which had come to power with a stunning win of 92 seats out of the total 117 in 2022 assembly polls, could only win three out of total 13 seats in the Lok Sabha polls held last month.
This assembly segment which has a fierce multi-corner electoral fight had fallen vacant ahead of the Lok Sabha election after its own sitting MLA Sheetal Angural jumped ship to join BJP and resigned as an AAP MLA.
While there are in all 15 candidates in the fray – segment has a total of 1.72 lakh voters – the AAP has fielded Mohinder Bhagat, son of former minister and BJP MLA Bhagat Chunni Lal. A prominent Bhagat community leader, Mohinder Bhagat quit BJP and joined the AAP last year.
The principal opposition party, Congress has fielded former senior deputy mayor and five-time municipal councillor Surinder Kaur. She is a prominent Dalit leader of the Ravidassia community. Angural has been fielded by the BJP. He won as AAP nominee in 2022 assembly polls. He also belongs to the Ravidassia community.
Notably, even though the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had placed its bet on Surjit Kaur, it withdrew its support to her calling her a rebel working against the SAD chief Sukhbir Badal. She, however, has the support of the SAD faction which revolted against the leadership. The SAD subsequently announced its support to the BSP nominee Binder Kumar.
Chief minister Mann who kicked off the campaign for Bhagat quite early, held public meetings and conducted roadshows and also moved to a rented house in Jalandhar with his family, has also announced that he would camp here regularly to meet people for two days a week. The party has showcased its welfare schemes of free power, mohalla clinics and schools of eminence to woo voters.
The Congress, which won seven of the 13 Lok Sabha including Jalandhar (reserve) seat, too has gone whole hog to win the seat with all the top leaders – party state chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, former chief minister and Jalandhar MP Charanjit Singh Channi working overtime. The party has hit out at AAP for worsening law and order situation and drug menace.
The BJP, which failed to open its account in the general elections, also has high stakes to make a mark by its performance for which all the top leaders including state party chief Sunil Jakhar and other senior leaders including Kewal Dhillon, Jai Inder Kaur, Anita Som Parkash have campaigned intensively for Angural. The votes will be counted on July 13.
