JALANDHAR: In a major setback, the Congress lost the Jalandhar parliamentary seat in the by-election, which was made necessary due to the death of party MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary. AAP candidate Sushil Kumar Rinkua former congressional MLA who was inducted into the party on April 5, won by a margin of more than 58,000 votes.
The AAP leadership was desperate for victory in Jalandhar after losing the Sangrur by-election in about three months after sweeping the assembly elections last year.
Prior to this ballot, Jalandhar has traditionally remained with the Congress and has only lost his seat four times in the last fifty years: in 1977, 1989, 1996 and 1998, when the entire opposition was united and there was a strong surge against the Congress.
What adds to the shock even more to Congress is that in the 2022 assembly election, the party had won five out of nine assembly segments despite the strong AAP surge sweeping across the state. In the assembly election, CM Charanjit Singh Channi’s caste factor was believed to have worked for Congress in Jalandhar which has a high population of Ad-dharmi/Ravidasia/Ramdasia community and where Channi is from. This time AAP won seven of nine assembly segments.
Apparently, aside from factors like 300 units of free horsepower, what headlined the scale for AAP in the Congress citadel was its very aggressive campaigning and ground-level micromanagement along with “Ikk mauka” (one possibility) calls. by AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann for 11 months. The ruling party has managed to transfer dozens of sarpanches, panchayat members and advisers from the other party to its camp in the past month.
At the same time, although Congress has shown a united face, its campaign has been far less aggressive and coordinated than the AAP and the BJP, even though its local leaders have been working on the ground. Using social media to its advantage as well, Congress was far behind.
It becomes clear that the sympathy factor, which Congress expected to work due to the death of its incumbent MP and Akali Dal after the death of former Prime Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Shiromani Akali Dal-BSP alliance took the third position. Compared to the 2022 election, it lost its share of the vote above 2.5%.
The BJP, which also ran a very aggressive campaign with over half a dozen union ministers, central leaders and many other leaders remaining involved in the campaign, was pushed into fourth place and lost its security deposit despite improving its share of votes by more than three percent compared to the 2022 assembly elections.
Despite claims by BJP to improve a lot, the outcome between SAD and BJP is on expected lines as when SAD-BJP had alliances, SAD used to contest by six seats and BJP by three.
BJP had fielded Mazhabi Sikh candidate and then used his caste card among Balmiki/Mazhabi Sikh voters. This factor was at play in the survey. The Balmiks have traditionally been a strong constituency in Congress. From some increase in BJP’s vote share it becomes evident that BJP has made inroads into the community, which may have worked negatively for Congress.
The AAP leadership was desperate for victory in Jalandhar after losing the Sangrur by-election in about three months after sweeping the assembly elections last year.
Prior to this ballot, Jalandhar has traditionally remained with the Congress and has only lost his seat four times in the last fifty years: in 1977, 1989, 1996 and 1998, when the entire opposition was united and there was a strong surge against the Congress.
What adds to the shock even more to Congress is that in the 2022 assembly election, the party had won five out of nine assembly segments despite the strong AAP surge sweeping across the state. In the assembly election, CM Charanjit Singh Channi’s caste factor was believed to have worked for Congress in Jalandhar which has a high population of Ad-dharmi/Ravidasia/Ramdasia community and where Channi is from. This time AAP won seven of nine assembly segments.
Apparently, aside from factors like 300 units of free horsepower, what headlined the scale for AAP in the Congress citadel was its very aggressive campaigning and ground-level micromanagement along with “Ikk mauka” (one possibility) calls. by AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann for 11 months. The ruling party has managed to transfer dozens of sarpanches, panchayat members and advisers from the other party to its camp in the past month.
At the same time, although Congress has shown a united face, its campaign has been far less aggressive and coordinated than the AAP and the BJP, even though its local leaders have been working on the ground. Using social media to its advantage as well, Congress was far behind.
It becomes clear that the sympathy factor, which Congress expected to work due to the death of its incumbent MP and Akali Dal after the death of former Prime Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Shiromani Akali Dal-BSP alliance took the third position. Compared to the 2022 election, it lost its share of the vote above 2.5%.
The BJP, which also ran a very aggressive campaign with over half a dozen union ministers, central leaders and many other leaders remaining involved in the campaign, was pushed into fourth place and lost its security deposit despite improving its share of votes by more than three percent compared to the 2022 assembly elections.
Despite claims by BJP to improve a lot, the outcome between SAD and BJP is on expected lines as when SAD-BJP had alliances, SAD used to contest by six seats and BJP by three.
BJP had fielded Mazhabi Sikh candidate and then used his caste card among Balmiki/Mazhabi Sikh voters. This factor was at play in the survey. The Balmiks have traditionally been a strong constituency in Congress. From some increase in BJP’s vote share it becomes evident that BJP has made inroads into the community, which may have worked negatively for Congress.
