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Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll: 16 lakh voters to seal fate of 19 candidates today
The stage is set for four-cornered high-stakes Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll to be held on Wednesday with the ruling AAP, Congress, BJP and SAD vying to outdo each other in the Dalit stronghold
Jalandhar
The stage is set for four-cornered high-stakes Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll to be held on Wednesday with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) vying to outdo each other in the Dalit stronghold.
The seat fell vacant after the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary following a cardiac arrest during party leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jalandhar’s Phillaur on January 14 this year.
A total of 16,21,800 voters will seal the fate of 19 candidates (15 male and four female) in the fray. The authorities have set up 1,972 polling stations across the nine assembly segments under the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency.
Of the 1,972 polling stations, 542 have been declared vulnerable, 16 critical and 30 as expenditure-sensitive.
The Jalandhar district administration has made elaborate security arrangements to ensure free and fair elections. As many as 8,000 Punjab Police cops and paramilitary personnel have been deployed across the districts to maintain law and order on the polling day.
Deputy commissioner-cum-district electoral officer Jaspreet Singh said of the total 1,972 polling stations,738 are located in urban areas, while 1,234 are rural polling stations.
He said complete webcasting would be ensured at all polling stations. There are 44 model polling stations, besides an exclusive polling station for women in each assembly constituency, he said, adding that a special polling station will be operated and managed by the people with disability at local pingalwara.
The AAP has fielded Congress turncoat Sushil Kumar Rinku, while the Congress has reposed faith in Chaudhary family by giving ticket to Santokh’s wife Karamjit Kaur.
From the SAD-BSP, sitting MLA Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi from Banga is in the fray, while the BJP has chosen Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, who had switched to the saffron party after snapping ties with the SAD.
All political outfits carried out an extensive 27-day campaigning as their top leadership camped in this Dalit-dominant constituency to woo voters. Dalits constitute 32% of the population in Punjab, the highest among all states. Most of the Scheduled Castes (SC) population is concentrated in the Doaba region of the state, accounting for 45% of the population.
The bypoll is a prestige battle for all the parties as it is likely to set the tone for the 2024 general elections.
“No political outfit was expecting a parliamentary bypoll before the 2024 elections. This is the reason that no party can afford a defeat at this stage as the byelection will test its cadres and policies. Besides, the Jalandhar bypoll will help all parties to identify their flaws and strengths before next year’s general elections,” a political observer said.
Before the 2022 assembly polls, the constituency was dubbed as a Congress stronghold, but the AAP managed to breach this Congress bastion. In the 2022 polls, the Congress won five out of nine segments in the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency, while the AAP bagged the remaining seats.
Jalandhar parliamentary constituency comprises of nine assembly segments having congress MLAs in Jalandhar Cantonment, Jalandhar North, Adampur, Shahkot and Phillaur, while the AAP has its representatives in Jalandhar central, Jalandhar west, Nakodar and Kartarpur assembly constituencies.
