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Punjab’s Barnala: Tough fight on cards in AAP’s bastion this time
Aam Aadmi Party’s former district chief Gurdeep Batth is in fray as an independent. The Congress is seeing a chance in anti-incumbency. The Bharatiya Janata Party expects good response as it has been banking on Modi government’s schemes.
With a rebel leader of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fighting as an independent, the Barnala by-poll, slated for November 20, is heading for a multi-cornered contest. The seat fell vacant after AAP MLA Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer got elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency.
AAP, which has been holding the Barnala seat since 2017, has fielded Harinder Dhaliwal, a close confidant of Sangrur MP and two-time Barnala MLA Gurmeet Singh Hayer. Dhaliwal’s candidature prompted party’s former district president Gurdeep Batth to file his nomination as an independent candidate, triggering his expulsion from the party two weeks ago. Batth had been AAP’s district president since 2018.
The Congress, which is riding high on its recent performance in the Lok Sabha elections from the state, has fielded Kuldeep Singh Dhillon, alias Kala Dhillon, from the Barnala assembly seat. This will be his first election contest.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Kewal Singh Dhillon, former two-time MLA from Barnala and former Congress leader. Govind Singh Sandhu, grandson of SAD (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Mann, is the candidate for SAD (Amritsar). Simranjit Singh Mann had won the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll in June 2022.
May not be a cakewalk for AAP
For the ruling AAP, which won the Barnala assembly seat consecutively in 2017 and 2022, retaining the constituency may not be a cakewalk as its former leader Gurdeep Batth, who is fighting as an independent candidate, may play a spoilsport. Batth, who holds a good rapport with voters and AAP workers in Barnala, has been alleging that it was Sangrur MP Gurmeet Hayer who got party ticket for Harinder Dhaliwal as he was his maternal cousin, a charge denied by Hayer.
Batth had been canvassing as AAP candidate until party gave ticket to Harinder Dhaliwal. Along with this, AAP has been in line of fire as farmers have been blaming it for “tardy” paddy procurement and shortage of key fertiliser – di-ammonium phosphate (DAP). Farmers have started a pucca morcha (permanent sit-in) near the election office of AAP candidate Harinder Dhaliwal in Barnala.
With nothing new to offer for the by-elections, AAP’s Harinder Dhaliwal has been relying on party’s trump card — Aam Aadmi Clinics and 300 free electricity units — while reaching out to the electorate.
Dhaliwal, during a public gathering, said, “AAP has already fulfilled majority of the pre-poll promises. It has revolutionised the health and education sectors in Punjab.”
Sangrur MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer has been campaigning aggressively for Dhaliwal. Hayer is apparently giving the impression as if he himself is fighting the election. Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann has also campaigned for the party candidate. Besides, many cabinet ministers have been going door to door.
Batth has also been accusing AAP and local leaders of corruption. “I had personally informed to the party about the corrupt practices by government officials, but no action was taken. People of Barnala, therefore, will avenge the non-fulfilment of pre poll promises and misdeeds of AAP,” he said.
Congress’ Kala Dhillon rides on anti-incumbency, local issues
Accusing the incumbent AAP government as ‘advertisement wali sarkar’ (advertisement-based government), Kala Dhillon, Congress’ district president from Barnala, alleges that the ground reality hasn’t changed in the state even after almost three years of AAP government. “Before coming to power, AAP had promised to eradicate the drug menace within weeks, open 16 medical colleges, MSP for farmers and improve financial health of state. Sadly, nothing has changed,” he says. The Congress candidate, a transport businessman before joining politics, claimed that Barnala lacks tertiary healthcare facilities and faces waterlogging.
Silver lining for BJP
The saffron party has fielded Kewal Singh Dhillon, who was earlier with the Congress and elected MLA from Barnala twice in 2007 and 2012. Though the BJP faced a defeat in the parliamentary elections from Sangrur, the saffron party had performed well in Barnala – one of the nine assembly segments of the Sangrur parliamentary constituency.
The BJP had secured more votes in the Barnala assembly segment during the Lok Sabha elections than the Congress and the SAD. The BJP’s vote share in this constituency was 19,218, whereas the Congress had got 15,469 and the SAD 5,724 votes. AAP had managed to garner 31,512 votes from this assembly constituency.
Dhillon, who is seeking votes while projecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s schemes in agriculture and health sector, is confident of win given the party’s performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections from Barnala.
