Ex-bureaucrats fail to find favour with electorate

Only Amar Singh (Fatehgarh Sahib) has managed to win. Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Parampal Kaur Sidhu and Simaranjit Singh Mann have failed to make the mark.

The Lok Sabha polls in Punjab proved to be a rough road for ex-bureaucrats and ex-cops as only one out of the four could make it to the Parliament in the results declared today.

BJP candidate from Amritsar Taranjit Singh Sandhu at a counting centre in Amritsar on Tuesday. (Sameer Sehgal /HT)

Those contesting polls were former Indian Foreign Services (IFS) officer and former Indian Ambassador to United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu, retired Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer Amar Singh, ex-Punjab cadre IAS Parampal Kaur Sidhu and former Indian Police Services (IPS) officer Simaranjit Singh Mann. Barring Amar Singh, who won from the Fatehgarh Sahib reserved seat for the second consecutive term, others failed to make the mark.

Sandhu stood third from the Amritsar Lok Sabha segment despite his very strong Sikh credentials as he is the grandson of late Teja Singh Samundri, one of the founding members of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). He was defeated by over 47,000 votes.

Parampal Kaur who took premature retirement to contest polls stood fourth from Bathinda and was defeated by over 2.65 lakh votes by SAD’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the winner. Kaur also has strong political credentials as she is the daughter-in-law of Akali veteran and former cabinet minister Sikander Singh Maluka.

However, Amar Singh wrested Fatehgarh Sahib by a margin of 34,202 votes by defeating AAP’s Gurpreet Singh GP even as political observers were considering AAP candidate as favourite from the seat.