In a close-knit electoral contest, Dr Dharamvira Gandhi of the Congress managed to emerge victorious against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Dr Balbir Singh, incumbent state health and medical education minister, and BJP’s Preneet Kaur on Tuesday. For the Congress, this is the 13th victory in the Patiala Lok Sabha seat out of the 18 parliamentary elections since Independence.
It was the difference of just 14,831 votes between Gandhi and Singh in one of the high-stakes parliamentary constituency of Punjab. The Congress candidate bagged 3,05,616 votes while Dr Balbir Singh and Preneet Kaur received 2.90 lakh and 2.88 lakh votes, respectively.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate NK Sharma, two-time MLA from Dera Bassi, finished fourth with 1.53 lakh votes in a four-cornered face-off. Sharma couldn’t take lead even in his own assembly segment of Dera Bassi. The SAD candidate finished fourth in his assembly segment with 33,748 votes therein.
Dr Dharmavira Gandhi, a former AAP MP from Patiala and cardiologist by profession, had struck a chord with voters with his clean image, simplicity and non-conventional type of canvassing. With his victory, the Congress has retained its electoral bastion despite the royal family’s switch to the saffron party before the election. Preneet had won the seat for the Congress in 1999, 2004 and 2009 before losing to Dr Dharamvira Gandhi (then with AAP) in 2014 by a margin of 20,942 votes. She managed to return to the Parliament in 2019. Preneet’s victory margin in 2019 and 2009 was 1.62 lakh and 97,389 votes, respectively.
Dr Gandhi was asked by none other than former Congress president Rahul Gandhi to join the party and thereafter contest the elections from Patiala.
{{/usCountry}}Dr Gandhi was asked by none other than former Congress president Rahul Gandhi to join the party and thereafter contest the elections from Patiala.
{{/usCountry}}On the counting day, Dr Dharamvira had a nervous start with Dr Balbir Singh taking the lead during the early trends. In the afternoon, Preneet Kaur was ahead for some time, but she gradually went down to the third spot. In the end, it was between Dr Dharamvira Gandhi and Dr Balbir Singh. During the final few rounds, Dr Gandhi took the lead and won the seat by a narrow margin of 14,831 votes.
Dr Gandhi took the lead in Nabha and Ghanaur assembly segments. Preneet Kaur was ahead in Patiala Urban, Rajpura and Dera Bassi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had held a rally in Patiala city in favour of Preneet Kaur a week before the polling. Dr Balbir Singh took a marginal lead from his assembly segment – Patiala rural.