Chandigarh, May 13
Congress government’s anti-corruption card failed to click among the voters as the party lost the game of chance to Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance in Punjab. The alliance — riding high on anti-incumbency wave — managed to reverse the 1999 Lok Sabha verdict by winning 11 out of 13 seats in 2004. The Congress bagged just two seats.
Out of 11 seats grabbed by the alliance, eight went to SAD. The BJP won all the three seats it contested despite a major “defeat” elsewhere in the country. Most of the young politicians, including Navjot Singh Sidhu, won by a margin of over 1 lakh votes.
Ms Preneet Kaur of the Congress and Ms Paramjit Kaur Gulshan of SAD were the only women candidate to make it to the seats of power. Like last time, none of the Independents succeeded.
Left front had won nine seats. SAD-BJP combine had grabbed just three seats. The remaining one seat had gone to Mr Simranjit Singh Mann of the Akali Dal (Amritsar). He today lost to SAD candidate Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa in Sangrur.
The winners included SAD candidates Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa from Sangrur, Punjab’s former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s son Sukhbir Badal from Faridkot, former Assembly Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal from Phillaur, Zora Singh Mann from Ferozepore, Dr Ratttan Singh Ajnala from Tarn Taran, Sukhdev Singh Libra from Ropar, Sharanjit Singh Dhillon from Ludhiana and Paramjit Kaur Gulshan from Bathinda.
The winning BJP candidates included Vinod Khanna from Gurdaspur, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Sidhu from Amritsar and BJP state President Avinash Rai Khanna from Hoshiarpur.
The two Congress winners included Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur from Patiala and Rana Gurjit Singh from Jalandhar. He defeated former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral’s son Naresh Gujral.
Out of the 10 contesting members belonging to the previous Lok Sabha, only three were able to make it to the 14th Lok Sabha to be constituted within a few days.
They are Mr Vinod Khanna, Ms Preneet Kaur and Mr Zora Singh Mann. For Mr Khanna and Mr Mann, it was a hat-trick from their constituencies. Ms Kaur got her second successive mandate.
Of the seven incumbent MPs defeated in the elections, four belonged to the Congress. They included six-time Congress MP Raghu Nandan Lal Bhatia from Amritsar, Ms Santosh Choudhary from Phillaur, Mr Jagmeet Brar from Ferozepore and Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo from Ropar.
The remaining three were Mr Simranjit Singh from Sangrur, now BSP candidate Charanjit Singh Channi from Hoshiarpur and SAD MP Tarlochan Singh Tur.
Vinod Khanna won the Gurdaspur seat after defeating Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder of Congress by 24,980 votes. Navjot Singh Sidhu defeated Congress candidate Raghu Nandan Bhatia from Amritsar by 1,11,716 votes. From Ludhiana, Mr Sharanjit Singh defeated Munish Tiwari of Congress by 17804 votes.
Dr Rattan Singh Ajnala defeated his nearest candidate from Tarn Taran by 56494 votes, while Rana Gurjit Singh defeated Naresh Gujral from Jalandhar by 33463 votes. From Phillaur, Charanjit Singh Atwal emerged victorious by a margin of 98884 votes after defeating Santosh Chaudhary of the Congress.
Mr Avinash Rai Khanna was today declared elected from Hoshiarpur after he defeated his nearest rival CPM-Congress candidate Darshan Singh Mattu by a margin of 1,04,371 votes.
From Ropar parliamentary constituency, Sukhdev Singh Libra defeated Congress candidate Shamsher Singh Dullo by 33637 votes. Ms Preneet Kaur defeated SAD candidate Capt Kanwaljit Singh by 23667 votes.
Union Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa was elected from Sangrur after beating his nearest rival Congress MLA Arvind Khanna by a margin of 27,277 votes. SAD Mann MP in the dissolved house Simranjit Singh Mann finished a poor third.
Ms Paramjit Kaur Gulshan tasted victory from Bathinda after defeating Kushalya Chaman of CPI by a margin of 62651 votes. Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, who had won from Faridkot in 1996 and 1998, but had lost in 1999, succeeded this time. He defeated his nearest rival Congress candidate Karan Brar from Faridkot by a comfortable margin of 1,36,078 voters. Mr Zora Singh Maan defeated Congress candidate Jagmeet Brar from Ferozepore by 11539 votes.
