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In Punjab bypoll battle, AAP wins three seats, Congress one
The AAP won the Chabbewal, Gidderbaha and Dera Baba Nanak assembly seats, shaking off its dismal performance in the state in the April-May Lok Sabha elections
Chandigarh
The Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government cleared a crucial electoral test in Punjab with flying colours on Saturday, with the party winning three out of four assembly constituencies in the state byelections.
The AAP won the Chabbewal, Gidderbaha and Dera Baba Nanak assembly seats, shaking off its dismal performance in the state in the April-May Lok Sabha elections. The party won these three seats for the first time, defeating the Congress, which suffered a setback and could only win the Barnala assembly constituency.
The bypoll results saw both parties break into each other’s strongholds, swapping the four assembly seats in a reversal of the 2022 state election outcomes. The AAP wrested all three of its winning seats from the Congress, which scored its lone win in a seat previously held by the ruling party. The BJP, however, drew a blank, with none of its candidates securing a win. BJP candidates not only failed to pose any significant challenge, but three of its candidates also forfeited their security deposits.
After the election results, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal thanked the people of Punjab for once again expressing their faith in the party’s ideology and the work of its government by giving three out of four seats. Chief minister Bhagwant Mann also congratulated the people for the party’s splendid victory. “Under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP is touching new heights across the country. We are working for Punjab’s progress without discrimination and with utmost honesty. We will fulfil each and every promise made to the people during the byelections,” he posted on X.
Setback for Cong’s state bigwigs
Another reason for the ruling AAP to celebrate is its showing in the Congress bastions of Gidderbaha and Dera Baba Nanak where the byelections were a matter of personal prestige for Congress MPs — Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and former deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa — as their spouses were in the fray. AAP’s Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon defeated Congress candidate Amrita Warring by 21,969 votes in Gidderbaha. Raja Warring won this seat three consecutive times before vacating it on getting elected as the Ludhiana MP. BJP’s Manpreet Singh Badal polled only 12,227 votes. In Dera Baba Nanak, the Congress put up a fight with Jatinder Kaur Randhawa, wife of Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Randhawa, losing to AAP’s Gurdeep Singh Randhawa by 5,699 votes in a close contest. Jatinder Kaur was leading initially, but the AAP candidate overtook her in the final rounds. Sukhjinder Randhawa had represented this seat in 2002, 2012, 2017 and 2022.
The biggest victory for the AAP came in the Chabbewal assembly constituency where party nominee Dr Ishank Kumar Chabbewal defeated his nearest rival and Congress candidate Ranjit Kumar by 28,690 votes. The AAP nominee polled 51,904 votes and Ranjit Kumar got 23,214 votes, while BJP’s Sohan Singh Thandal was a distant third with 8,692 votes. Ishank’s father Raj Kumar Chabbewal had won this seat in 2017 and 2022 on the Congress ticket. He is now AAP’s Lok Sabha MP from Hoshiarpur.
Rebel took down ruling party in its stronghold
The AAP’s party was ruined somewhat by rebel candidate Gurdeep Singh Batth in Barnala where its nominee Harinder Singh Dhaliwal lost to Congress’ Kuldeep Singh Kala Dhillon by a narrow margin of 2,157 votes. Batth polled 16,899 and came fourth behind BJP’s Kewal Singh Dhillon, who got 17,589 votes.
Batth was the party’s district chief and rebelled after Dhaliwal, a close associate for two-time former MLA Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, was given the party ticket. The party tried to placate him, but he declined and ran an aggressive campaign. The Barnala seat was vacated by Hayer after he got elected to the Lok Sabha from Sangrur.
Saturday’s byelection results will increase the AAP’s seat tally to 94 in the 117-member state assembly, while the number of Congress MLAs has dropped to 16. The SAD, which did not participate in the bypolls, has three legislators, the BJP has two, the BSP has one, and there is one Independent.
