 |
|
|
Congress: 08, BJP: 01, SAD: 04
SAD ‘retrieves’ Malwa
Badal for end to politics of confrontation
Maharani dons the crown
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Youth power takes Bittu to Lok Sabha
SAD’s Rai Sikh card paid off
Santosh wins by 366 votes
Santosh Chaudhary’s victory margin lowest
Sidhu’s hat-trick
EC withholds results of 6 Punjab seats
Tewari defeats Galib
Ajnala upholds winning spree
Jalandhar goes to Congress
Bajwa’s local v/s outsider card
Gulshan does it second time
Singla defeats Dhindsa
|
|
Congress: 08, BJP: 01, SAD: 04 Naveen S Garewal Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 16 Talking to mediapersons here this afternoon, Amarinder said the poll clearly showed an “anti-government” swing. Accepting responsibility for the defeat on the seats the Congress lost, Amarinder said, “Badal and his family have become experts in contesting elections. We have to review and counter their strategy.” He added that anti-government feeling was very profound in many places and the SAD-BJP leaders and cadres were “soon going to split”. He even claimed that many Akali MLAs were “fed up with Sukhbir Badal’s autocratic style of functioning and were willing to join the Congress”. Rahul Gandhi’s seven election rallies, followed by four each by Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh consolidated the votes in favour of the Congress and “was one of the single largest factors for the Congress’ victory on the seven seats” (Hoshiarpur result being awaited). About losing Bathinda, Amarinder Singh said, “I have told my son Raninder not to take the defeat seriously, as I too lost my first election. But he did well considering the odds he had to face on his own.” Analysing the reasons for the Congress drubbing at the hustings, Amarinder Singh said, “I did not expect to lose Ferozepur, but the Rai Sikh vote got consolidated in favour of the SAD candidate, who is from that community.” Faridkot he said was weak from the beginning, as the candidate did not understand the area. “Khadoor Sahib, being a 100 per cent rural seat, gave the SAD some advantage, though Gurjit Rana had done well there initially,” he added. He claimed that the traditional BJP votes in small towns went to the Congress. But he refused to comment on how the Dera Sacha Sauda voted this time. “I am yet to get detailed reports, so I cannot make a comment yet,” he added.
|
|
|
SAD ‘retrieves’ Malwa
Bathinda, May 16 Harsimrat’s victory with more than 1.20 lakh votes over Raninder Singh has caused a setback to the latter’s father Amarinder Singh, chairman of the Congress Campaign Committee. Raninder and Sukhwinder Singh Danny (Faridkot) were handpicked candidates of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi. The victory of Harsimrat, Sher Singh Ghubaya and Paramjit Kaur Gulshan has proved wrong the rivals that anti-incumbency factor would help Congress candidates, particularly Raninder in Bathinda. Harsimrat has secured an impressive lead in most of the Assembly segments that were represented by Congress MLAs. Her lead of more than 14,000 votes in Talwandi Sabo segment that is represented by Jeet Mohinder Singh is considered significant, although her lead in certain other segments of Bathinda and Mansa districts was much more. She maintained a lead over the Congress in seven of the nine segments, including Bathinda (rural), Lambi, Maur, Sardulgarh, Budladha, Bhucho and Talwandi Sabo. Raninder got lead in only Bathinda (urban) and Mansa segments. The fight in Bathinda was neck and neck between Harsimrat and Raninder, but the high percentage of 78.75 per cent polling turned the tide in favour of the former. Followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda are this time learnt to have also voted for Harsimrat. Jubilant Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy CM, accompanied wife Harsimrat here from Badal village when her lead became clear.
|
|
Badal for end to politics of confrontation
Chandigarh, May 16 Badal said anti-incumbency was a factor in the elections and that the Congress could win only two seats when it faced the Lok Sabha election when in power in the state. “By that yardstick our performance is better,” he said adding “the media was not predicting beyond two/three seats for us”. The Chief Minister said, “Amarinder should take a lesson from the verdict and leave politics of confrontation”. He should think about welfare of the state rather than planning political demise of the Badal family. Badal also gave a call to work for the development of the state and protect interests of the state. He clarified that he did not subscribe to Gujarat CM Narinder Modi’s views at the NDA rally in Ludhiana that all rivers should be inter-linked. The SAD is also likely to act on its weaknesses and take action wherever required. On Surjit Singh Barnala group in Sangrur opposing party candidate Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Badal said, “We are seized of the situation and will take action against those who worked against the interests of the party”. On SAD’s role in the NDA, Badal said the SAD would continue to be with the NDA. On the weakening of regional parties, he said all those parties, which had deviated from their agendas, got weakened. “There are also cases of regional parties like the Janata Dal (United) and the Biju Janata Dal which have emerged stronger, ” he said. On Dr Manmohan Singh’s candidature for the Prime Minister, he said he did not want to talk in terms of Sikh, Hindu or Muslim candidates for the top post. He said it was for the UPA to choose the most appropriate candidate. Badal said Harsimrat Kaur Badal had won from Bathinda because of her personality and hard work by the party cadre.
|
|
|
Maharani dons the crown
Preneet’s victory virtually elated the Congress workers and leaders as Patiala was one of the Lok Sabha seats of Punjab where prestige of both the SAD and the Congress was at stake. Of a total of 13,39,53 voters, as many as 9.36 lakh voters had cast their votes. Preneet managed to bag a maximum of all- 4,74,188 votes- as compared to Chandumajra who secured 3,76,799 votes. BSP candidate Deepak Joshi trailed at 57,839 votes. Preneet secured 50.66 per cent votes, followed by Chandumajra who bagged 40.25 per cent votes while BSP candidate Joshi got 6.17 per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency. The Patiala (urban) assembly constituency voters rewarded Preneet with a maximum lead of 39,770 votes as she got 59,554 of the 82,149 votes polled while Chandumajra got just 19,784 votes. The BSP secured 1,045 votes. The same trend was visible at Patiala (rural) constituency where Preneet recorded a margin of 29,964 votes as she secured 63,996 votes against 34,032 polled to Chandumajra and 5,806 to the BSP candidate. In Nabha, Preneet recorded a lead margin of 17,051 votes since she got 58,106 votes followed by Chandumajra at 41,055 and BSP candidate at 8,104 votes of a total of 1,10,530 votes polled in the constitutency. In Rajpura, 92,601 votes were polled of which the Congress got 48,806 votes while the SAD-BJP combine secured 37,433 votes followed by the BSP at 3,956 votes. SAD candidate Chandumajra secured a lead of 9,114 votes in Dera Bassi assembly constituency as he managed to bag 52,794 votes as against 43,680 votes polled in favour of Preneet. The BSP got a considerable chunk of 10,055 votes here. Ghanaur again turned out to be a SAD-BJP citadel as Chandumajra secured 44,762 of the 96,455 votes polled in the assembly constituency. Preneet’s share was 41,837 votes while the BSP got 7,016 votes. The Sanaur constituency voters tilted in favour of Preneet who got 57,792 votes against Chandumajra’s 54,228 votes and 6,332 polled to BSP candidate Joshi. While a jubilant Preneet attributed her victory to the policies of PM Dr Manmohan Singh, Chandumajra accepted his defeat saying he honoured the verdict of voters. He said the Congress had managed to “misguide” the voters.
|
|
Libra proves detractors wrong
Fatehgarh Sahib, May 16 Libra defeated Atwal by 34,299 votes. He bagged 3,93,557 votes, while his opponent managed to get 3,59,258 votes. A total 8,38,145 votes were polled in the
constituency. Three voters cast their votes using postal ballot each for Libra and Atwal. These included service voters as well
as those from police and paramilitary forces. Libra was expelled from the SAD after he voted in favour of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during no-confidence motion in Parliament over nuclear deal. Later, the Congress offered him a ticket from Fatehgarh Sahib. Both candidates contested the Fatehgarh Sahib (reserved) seat for first time. While the local masses have expressed their solidarity with Libra, Atwal was considered as an outsider in this constituency. Atwal had earlier been a sitting MP from Phillaur constituency. Fatehgarh Sahib remained one of the earliest seats of Punjab to be bracketed among early results. The counting began at centres established in Fatehgarh Sahib at 8 am. From the initial rounds of counting and early trends itself, Libra remained a forefront runner for the seat. By the end of final round, at around 2 pm, Congress candidate almost remained a winner with SAD candidate Atwal trailing him. The five Vidhan Sabha constituencies of Khanna, Samrala, Sahnewal, Payal and Raikot remained key constituencies reflecting the mandate of voters. Samrala witnessed highest number of votes (47,401) cast to Libra and Atwal (47,859) as well. BSP candidate Rai Singh managed 65,459 votes. Out of total 11 candidates in fray from the seat, eight of them may lose their deposits in this battle of veterans.
|
|
Youth power takes Bittu to LS
Jalandhar/Ropar, May 16 Kharar and Mohali Vidhan Sabha segments contributed largely to Bittu’s win, forming an integral part of the number game with Kharar registering 24,541 votes and Mohali making it at 25,561. BSP candidate Kewal Krishan also grabbed a major share with 1,14,975 votes. CPM’s Mahan Singh Rori trailed on the fourth position with 15,322 votes, hardly being able to disturb the Congress votebank. Priyank Bharti, constituency returning officer-cum-deputy commissioner Roopnagar, had not formally announced the results till 8 pm. An EVM from booth number 88 in Anandpur Sahib developed some fault at the time of counting. It had a record of almost 500 voters polled in it. Instead of showing records of all 14 candidates, it showed votes polled in favour of just three candidates. Out of nine Vidhan Sabha segments, Bittu failed to mark a lead only in Garhshankar, where SAD candidate Cheema marked a lead. The Congress practically retained not only its hold over strong pockets of Mohali and Kharar, but even managed to do fairly well in Akali-dominated areas of Banga, Balachaur, Nawanshahr, Chamkaur Sahib, Ropar and Anandpur Sahib. Bittu won with quite thin margins of 210 and 945 in Balachaur and Nawanshahr constituencies, respectively. While one of the major factors of his victory could have been the visit of Rahul Gandhi, Cheema attributes his defeat to the untimely demise of Akali minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh. “The area remained almost leaderless after he passed away. His death was the biggest lost to me,” he said today, accepting his defeat gracefully. The result from Chamkaur Sahib came late in the evening. Here too, Cheema lost with a margin of 9,782 votes. Bittu’s self-projections of being grandson of slain Punjab CM and a “chosen one” of Rahul Gandhi helped him play the trick. His massive team of youth accompanied him in most rallies. Many kept a close watch of Cheema’s activities and ensured pasting of Bittu’s posters in villages ahead of his visit there. The tech-savvy youth also worked day in and out, sending out e-mails to voters, using youtube to woo the youth and getting publicity material circulated through media.
|
||
|
SAD’s Rai Sikh card paid off
Ferozepur, May 16 Ghubaya polled 4,50,900 votes compared to 4,29,829 votes polled by Brar. Leaving aside four Assembly segments of Ferozepur (Urban), Abohar, Balluana and Muktsar where Brar remained ahead, Ghubaya won comfortably from all other Assembly segments, including Ferozepur (Rural), Guru Harsahai, Jalalabad, Fazilka and Malout. The maximum lead for Ghubaya came from his hometown Jalalabad where he trounced Brar by 20,531 votes followed by Ferozepur (Rural) where Ghubaya won by 19,314 votes. Surprisingly, in Guru Harsahai and Fazilka segments, where Brar was expected to perform well, Ghubaya took lead of 8,848 and 2,243 votes, respectively. Guru Harsahai is represented by Congress heavyweight and chief whip of the party, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi. In Malout Assembly segment, Ghubaya polled 51,887 votes compared to 44,840 votes polled by Brar, winning by margin of 7,047 votes. Moreover, border belt from Ferozepur (Rural), Guru Harsahai, Jalalabad up to Fazilka has strong presence of Rai Sikh voters which helped Ghubaya. In most of the Rai Sikh dominated villages, more than 90 per cent polling was reported. Dera Sacha Sauda votes is also learnt to have gone the SAD way in this constituency, which also made difference to Congress prospects. Brar did well in urban Assembly segments, which reflects urban electorate voted for the Congress. In Ferozepur (Urban), Brar remained ahead of Ghuabaya by 17,851 votes followed by Abohar, where notwithstanding his differences with local Congress leadership, he gained lead of 10,489 votes. In his home town of Muktsar, Brar had slender lead of 4,722 votes, followed by Balluana where Brar polled 3,811 more votes than Ghuabya.
|
|
Santosh wins by 366 votes
Hoshiarpur, May 16 The initial rounds of the counting of votes were, however, in her favour but she trailed Som Prakash, former IAS officer who was fielded by the BJP. Six-and-a-half hour delay in announcing the results was due to snag in an electronic voting machine, supplied by the Electronic Corporation of India , a Hydrabad-based company. Returning officer NK Wadhawan claimed two engineers of the corporation were called to retrieve the data from the master card of the EVM which took a long time. The engineer reached the counting centre at 7.20 pm and retrieved the master card in the presence of the RO and the election observers. The RO who said he would provide information on total number of votes polled in favour of Santosh her rival Som, BJP candidate and Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi remained on third position, only after official declaration of the result.
|
|
Santosh Chaudhary’s victory margin lowest
Chandigarh, May 16 Punjab has recorded this after 25 years. In 1984 Mewa Singh of the SAD won by 140 votes routing Joginder Pandey of the Congress from Ludhiana seat. This margin was the lowest in India that year. Pratap Singh Bajwa of the Congress also barely made it from Gurdaspur today scoring 8342 votes more than three- time MP and actor Vinod Khanna. Though Navjot Singh Sidhu of the BJP recorded margin of over 7,000 votes in Amritsar but the seat fluctuated between the Congress and the BJP. Sidhu retained the seat he had won by over one lakh votes in 2004. Counting saw varying moods and television channels showing Khanna leading and Navjot trailing. Every round of counting was eagerly awaited with margins oscillating between hundreds to thousands in a matter of an hour. At one point celebrations broke out in the Khanna camp and minutes later next cheers broke out in the Bajwa camp outside the counting centres in Gurdaspur. Khanna has seen the face of defeat for the first time. He had started with victory margin of over a lakh votes in 1998. In 1999 however he won by only 1399 votes from Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder. The same year Jagmeet Singh Brar won from Ferozepur by 5148 votes only. Record of the highest victory margin is held by Simranjit Singh Mann (SAD-A) who won the Sangrur seat in 1989 by over 4.80 lakh votes. His party’s other candidates too created new records. The same elections, Bimal Kaur Khalsa won Ropar seat by over 2.30 lakh votes and Sucha Singh won Bathinda by over 2 lakh votes. In 1980 Balram of the Congress had won by over 1.90 lakh votes from Ferozepur while Bhinder recorded over 1.50 lakh votes in Gurdaspur. In 2004, Sukhbir Badal won Faridkot seat by over 1.3 lakh votes and today his wife recorded victory margin of over 1.20 lakh votes from Bathinda. Manish Tewari of the Congress too got winning margin of over one lakh votes from Ludhiana.
|
|
|
Sidhu’s hat-trick
Amritsar,
May 16 However, Soni made an application to the election observer seeking
counting of votes under one roof. Counting of votes was done at three
different places, including Khalsa College, Medical College and Mai
Bhago Polytechnic College. Earlier, as per counting of different
rounds, Sidhu was declared winner with 6,858 votes. This time Congress
infighting reportedly played a key role in the rout of Soni as the
Congress held that the Rajasansi Assembly (Sukh Sarkaria is Cong MLA
from Rajasansi) constituency voted in favour of Sidhu where he won by
15,249 votes. However, East Central and North gave vital lead to Sidhu
thereby eroding the BJP base which had earlier won all three
constituencies by registering victory for Dr Dalbir Singh, Laxmi Kanta
Chawla, state Health Minister, and Anil Joshi. But it was the Akali-held
constituencies of Majitha, Ajnala and Amritsar South that gave him
crucial and heavy votes to make him win for the third time in a row. The
delimitation factor wherein some parts of Jandiala Guru and Beas
segments were transferred to Khadoor Sahib also helped him to
consolidate his win. What endeared him to the educated class of voters
was special project for privatised garbage collection programme, which
had made the city cleaner and greener. Utilisation of MPLAD funds during
his tenure was another factor of his win.
|
|
EC withholds results of 6 Punjab seats
Chandigarh, May 16 They sought clarifications and even decisions from the Chief Electoral Officer on protests or complaints by the contestants. Some of the disputes, however, could not be resolved till late at night. Results of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Ferozepur and Anandpur Sahib besides that of Hoshiarpur could not be declared for want of clarification and clearance from the Election Commission. The (Punjab) Election Commission website was last updated at 6.41 pm . that carried results of only seven Lok Sabha constituencies. Going by the website, Partap Singh Bajwa was leading by 8271 votes and in Amritsar Navjot Sidhu was ahead by 7332 votes. Similarly, the website said Santosh Chaudhary was ahead of Som Parkash by 291 votes. In Anandpur Sahib, Ravneet Singh was leading Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema by 58,297 votes and in Ludhiana; Manish Tewari was ahead of Gurcharan Singh Galib by 75,104 votes.
|
|
|
Tewari defeats Galib
Ludhiana, May 16 Tewari polled 4,49,264 votes against 3,35,558 votes secured by Galib. The only mentionable contestant among 28 others in the city was Kehar Singh Ramgarhia of the BSP, who polled at least 32,660 votes. Tewari led from the word go in majority of the nine Assembly constituencies of the Parliamentary seat. Against popular expectations, Galib did not even manage any significant gains even in the rural segments, including Jagraon, Dakha and Gill.
|
|
Ajnala upholds winning spree
Khadoor Sahib, May 16 Ajnala (4,67,980) defeated Rana (4,35,720) with a margin of 32,260 votes. BSP candidate SS Shahi could get only 13,333 out of total polled 9,46,683 votes. Fifteen candidates were in the fray, but all except Ajnala and Rana could not even save their deposits. Some of the independents Darshan Singh got 5,610, Rajendra Rikhi 4,538 and Baba Balkar Singh 2,005 votes. Interestingly, both Ajnala and Rana won all elections they fought before trying their luck from Khadoor Sahib.
However, known for his poll management, Rana succeeded in reducing the margin of Ajnala’s victory this time to 32,260 as compared to 56,934 in 2004.
|
|
Jalandhar goes to Congress
Jalandhar, May 16 Kaypee polled 4,08,013 votes compared to 3,71,658 votes by Hans. In 2004 elections, Rana Gurjeet Singh of the Congress defeated his rival SAD nominee Naresh Gujral by over 33,000 votes. Results reveal one of the major factors was preference of the urban voter for Kaypee. He polled more votes from Jalandhar West, Jalandhar Central, Jalandhar North and Jalandhar Cantonment though all these seats have SAD - BJP
MLAs.
|
|
Bajwa’s local v/s outsider card
Gurdaspur, May 16 For the Congress, Gurdaspur seat proved to be a face saving in Majha belt of the state, as it lost other two Lok Sabha seats of Amritsar and Khadoor Sahib in the region. Bajwa received 4,47,994 votes while Khanna got 4,39,652 and the BSP secured 15,420 votes. The delimitation added two new Assembly segments of Batala and Qadiyan that voted heavily in favour of the Congress . Bajwa had trained his guns against Khanna for his being an outsider and being sighted rarely in the area, since the onset of the campaigning.
|
|
Gulshan does it second time
Faridkot, May 16 She has been elected to the LS for the second consecutive term. In the 2004 elections, she won from the Bathinda (Reserve) seat, but now she was shifted to the Faridkot constituency, as it was reserved for the Scheduled Castes after the delimitation process. Finance Minister of Punjab Manpreet Singh Badal, who was Gulshan’s election in charge, played a great role in scripting her victory.
|
|
Singla defeats Dhindsa
Sangrur, May 16
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Patiala, May 16