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Lok Sabha polls: Mohali set for multi-cornered contest
The district is divided into two parliamentary constituencies of Patiala, comprising Dera Bassi and Zirakpur, and Anandpur Sahib, including Mohali town and Kharar
Mohali is headed for a multi-cornered Lok Sabha contest on June 1 with the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the BJP and Shiromani Akal Dal (SAD) parting ways. The district is divided into two parliamentary constituencies of Patiala, comprising Dera Bassi and Zirakpur, and Anandpur Sahib, including Mohali town and Kharar.
Outgoing Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, who was elected on a Congress ticket in 2019, had secured a lead in eight assembly segments of the constituency and got 5,32,027 votes, but she failed to do so in Dera Bassi, a SAD stronghold. Though she defeated SAD-BJP candidate Surjit Singh Rakhra by 1,62,718 votes, he led by 17,050 votes in Dera Bassi.
Sitting Congress MP Manish Tewari defeated SAD’s Prem Singh Chandumajra by 46,884 votes to win the Anandpur Sahib seat. He led by 7,205 votes in Kharar and 12,652 votes in Mohali. Tewari got a total of 4,28,045 votes.
While the Congress is yet to decide on its candidate for Anandpur Sahib this time, it has fielded former AAP MP Dr Dharamvira Gandhi from Patiala. The SAD has fielded Chandumajra from Anandpur Sahib and former Dera Bassi MLA NK Sharma, who is also the party’s treasurer, from Patiala. The AAP is relying on its state chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang for Anandpur Sahib and banking on state health minister Balbir Singh in Patiala. The BJP has fielded four-time Patiala Congress MP and former Union minister Preneet Kaur, who switched sides in March, but is yet to announce its candidate for Anandpur Sahib.
The Congress faces a tough fight in the Dera Bassi segment as it battles infighting. Last to declare Dr Gandhi as its candidate from Patiala, the party is in a disarray after Preneet Kaur, who had won the seat four times on the Congress ticket, joined the BJP following in the footsteps of her husband and former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. Though Dr Gandhi had defeated her in 2014 as the AAP candidate, he is faced with resentment in the local Congress leadership that was opposed to the idea of fielding an outsider and ignoring party loyalists.
With the AAP in power in the state, the party stands a better chance to emerge victorious for the second time after Dr Gandhi won the Patiala seat by 20,941 votes in its debut elections in 2014. The party has an edge as all three MLAs from Mohali district are from the AAP.
In 2019, the AAP had banked on Neena Mittal, who got only 5,105 of the total 56,877 votes polled in Dera Bassi. This time, it has fielded Dr Balbir Singh, prompting its rivals to claim that the AAP didn’t have enough candidates and was forced to field cabinet ministers. Though new to Dera Bassi constituency, Dr Balbir Singh will have the support of the party’s Dera Bassi MLA, Kuljit Singh Randhawa.
The AAP had won one of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in 2019, but it swept the state with a historic 92 seats in the 2022 assembly elections.
As for the BJP, protesting farmers on the streets can be the biggest roadblock for Preneet Kaur’s campaign, particularly after the ongoing dharna at the Shambhu barrier in Patiala district. Farm unions have called for not letting BJP candidates campaign in villages. Preneet, who won the Patiala Lok Sabha seat in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2019, is banking mainly on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity.
The SAD has the upper hand in Dera Bassi with local realtor NK Sharma making his debut in the parliamentary election. Sharma, who joined the SAD in 1992, is an aide of party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. Being a former MLA from Dera Bassi, Sharma enjoys the support of the local leadership and is aware of the issues of the people. In view of the anti-incumbency, Sharma is expected to benefit in Dera Bassi, which has been a SAD turf.
No party has won the Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha constituency twice in a row in the last six elections. Due to the tussle between Chandigarh Congress president HS Lucky and four-time party MP Pawan Kumar Bansal over the party ticket, sitting Anandpur Sahib MP and former Union minister Manish Tewari was shifted to Chandigarh. While the Congress is yet to announce its candidate, Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjit Singh and former health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu are among the frontrunners for the ticket from Anandpur Sahib.
Despite the SAD-BJP candidate Chandumajra losing to Tewari in 2019, the SAD has decided to field him again. Chandumajra was the MP from Patiala in 1996 and 1998 and Anandpur Sahib in 2014. Even before the announcement of his ticket, Chandumajra started holding public meetings in Kharar and Mohali, where he has a strong voter base. In the last elections, he polled 3,81,161 votes, including 56,095 in Kharar and 50,728 in Mohali.
The AAP had to contend with the fourth spot in Anandpur Sahib in 2019 as its candidate, Narinder Singh Shergill, got 53,052 votes of which 10,272 votes were polled in Kharar and 8,359 votes in Mohali. This time, AAP candidate Malvinder Singh Kang can pose a challenge to his rivals as he will have support of the party’s Mohali MLA Kulwant Singh and Kharar legislator Anmol Gagan Maan.
Kang, who is contesting his first general election, was made the AAP’s state chief spokesperson in April 2022. He joined the party in July 2021. He was the state general secretary of the Punjab BJP earlier and had quit the party in 2020 over the (now repealed) farm laws. A former student union leader, Kang was elected president of the Panjab University Campus Students’ Council (PUCSC) in 2002 and 2003.
