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Tarn Taran bypoll: Big victory a shot in the arm for Punjab’s AAP leadership
AAP won the Tarn Taran assembly seat by 12,091 votes, boosting its morale ahead of state elections, despite opposition's failure to capitalize on corruption issues.
The AAP extended its winning run in Punjab on Friday, retaining the Tarn Taran assembly seat by an impressive margin of 12,091 votes in the fiercely contested byelection.
The ruling party’s strong showing in the five-cornered contest in Tarn Taran, considered a Panthic seat, is a shot in the arm for its leadership, in particular chief minister Bhagwant Mann. While this win will not significantly impact the seat tally in 117-member Punjab assembly, where the AAP already enjoys an overwhelming majority with 93 legislators, it serves as a morale booster for the party’s rank and file, with about a year remaining for the state assembly elections.
AAP state chief Aman Arora described the victory as people’s stamp of approval for the Mann government’s pro-people policies and development programmes. With this victory, the AAP has now won six of the seven byelections held since the time it came to power in the state.
Mann, along with Arvind Kejriwal and state in-charge Manish Sisodia, crisscrossed the constituency, while ministers and MLAs camped there for several days. There were also allegations of misuse of the official machinery, with the state police earning a reprimand from the Election Commission of India over alleged “lapses” in impartial conduct.
The AAP appears to have benefited both from voters’ proclivity to support the ruling party in byelections and from a split in the Akali vote. Another factor that may have worked to its advantage is the series of month-long events being organised by the state government to mark the 350th martyrdom anniversary of Guru Teg Bahadur along with the launch of the second phase of the Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra Yojna on October 29. The opposition parties, on the other hand, were unable to capitalise on the arrest of Punjab Police DIG Harcharan Singh Bhullar by the CBI in a corruption case, which exposed deep-rooted corruption in the state, and the resentment over the ruling party’s failure to fulfil its promise of providing ₹1,000 monthly assistance to all women in the state.
