BJP candidate from Jalandhar (West) Bhagat Chunni Lal with his supporters on Tuesday. Tribune Photo: Malkiat Singh

Jalandhar, March 6
The election results sprung up big surprises in Jalandhar as the SAD-BJP combine made a clean sweep in all nine constituencies of the district. There were nine of the 10 seats with the SAD-BJP in the previous elections, with Amarjit Singh Samra of Congress winning from Nakodar. This time, the Nakodar seat, too, went in favour of SAD candidate Gurpartap Singh Wadala, a first-timer and son for Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) member Kuldip Singh Wadala.

Wadala senior had lost to Samra. This time, junior Wadala turned the tides in favour of the SAD by becoming the only new face in Jalandhar. Gurpartap also recorded the maximum number of votes in his favour in the district. He polled 61,431 votes, while his rival got 52,844 votes.

BJP retains all three seats

All three BJP candidates, including Bhagat Chunni Lal from Jalandhar (West), KD Bhandari from Jalandhar (North) and Manoranjan Kalia from Jalandhar (Central), managed to make a comeback. Even as Chunni Lal's victory was almost certain as the voters somehow did not want Congress MP Mahinder Singh Kaypee's wife Suman Kaypee to win, none had expected that the 81-year-old leader would be able manage a lead of 11,343 votes. The Kaypee couple did not even visit the counting centre at Raizada Hansraj stadium.

KD Bhandari repeated his win against heavyweight Avtar Henry with a low margin of 1,703. Manoranjan Kalia, too, made a record of sorts by winning the Jalandhar (Central) seat. His father Manmohan Kalia also had turnstile victories earlier.

Swapping seats made no difference

Swapping of seats between Kartarpur and Phillaur MLAs by the SAD at the eleventh hour perhaps did not cause any major dent on the prospects of either of the two seats for the party, as was being apprehended.

Even the candidates - Avinash Chander from Phillaur and Sarwan Singh Phillaur from Kartarpur - were taken in for a surprise, for they, too, were not sure of their victories, especially when they both had just one month to work in their new constituencies.

The margins of both the leaders, however, remained low with Avinash having remained victorious with just 31 votes and Phillaur with 823 votes.

Brothers lose

The win of the two SAD candidates has led to defeat for estranged brothers Chaudhary Jagjit Singh from Kartarpur and Chaudhary Santokh Singh from Phillaur. The heavyweight Congress leaders were certain of managing to sail through. The defeat of Ch Jagjit Singh is also being attributed to his ill-health and cardiac surgeries he underwent in the recent past.

Highest margin

While it was Avinash who won with the least margin in Jalandhar, Pawan Tinu of the SAD won with the biggest margin in any of the nine constituencies falling in Jalandhar. Tinu managed to get 48,160 votes and his Congress counterpart got 28,856 votes giving the former a margin of 19,304 votes.

Results of nine Assembly seats of Jalandhar district

Jalandhar, March 6
The emergence of greenhorn SAD candidate from Jalandhar Cantonment Pargat Singh victorious today has rekindled the hope of revival of sports, especially hockey, in the state.

Ace hockey player Olympian Pargat Singh’s victory will likely get him the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in the state government. Pargat defeated Congress candidate Jagbir Singh Brar with 6,797 votes.

Pargat, who was Director, Sports, Punjab, had taken premature retirement after Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal asked him to contest elections from the Jalandhar Cantonment seat. Activists of SAD also vindicated the stand and claimed that there could be no other better choice than Pargat Singh for streamlining sports in Punjab. “Pargat, being an excellent hockey player, would get this portfolio and that in turn will revive sports in the state,” said a close aide of Pargat. Party workers also said even the choice of Pargat Singh for the Jalandhar Cantonment seat was made on the basis of his excellent track record as the Director, Sports, Punjab.

Even Pargat Singh during his maiden interaction with the media in Jalandhar after getting the ticket for cantonment had said, “During my stint as the Director, Sports, Punjab, I got a chance to work closely with Sukhbir Singh Badal and I was pretty impressed by his love for sports. And now that I have got a chance to contest elections, I would be able to work on a larger scale for the uplift of sports in the state.”

Padma Shree Pargat has played 313 international matches, which is a world record. He has been a captain in as many as 168 hockey matches, which is a national record.

Pargat is the only hockey skipper who captained twice in the Olympics - Barcelona in 1992 and Altanta in 1996. Apart from this he has also remained the captain of hockey teams which participated in the World Cups of 1986 and 1990, Champions Trophy, Asian Games, SAF Games and Asia Cup.

Holds roadshow, celebrates birthday

In the evening today, Pargat held a roadshow in the Jalandhar Cantonment constituency to thank the electorate for their enormous support. Pargat also cut a cake to celebrate his birthday along with his family and party workers as he was born on March 5, 1965. “We wanted to make the occasion more memorable and celebrated Pargat’s birthday by cutting a cake and distributing sweets among the electorate in the evening. This made our celebrations more memorable,” said a party worker.

Jalandhar, March 6
Commuters had to undergo a lot of inconvenience due to the blocking of roads in various areas of the city due to the counting of votes today.

The central area of the city was out of bounds due to the blocking of the roads owing to counting and commuters had to take detours only to find that the roads which they chose as their second options were also closed.

While huge stretches of roads were already blocked, the areas or chowks adjoining the blocked roads saw huge traffic jams and long lines of cars and vehicles moving at a snail’s pace.

The blocking of roads also caused huge inconvenience to daily commuters, students and patients (since there are many hospitals in the area).

What irked residents most was that it was all done without prior notice to them and the blocked roads came as an ugly surprise to them in the morning.

The key areas blocked today were from the Chugitti Chowk to Ladowali Road; from Polytechnic College for Women (Suvidha Centre turn) to Ladowali Road, from Alaska Chowk to Shastri Market Chowk, from BMC Chowk to Namdev Chowk, from Purani Baradari to Hansraj Stadium, from the office of the Education Department to Alaska Chowk and from the Police Lines toRanjit Nagar on Ladowali Road.

Since the very central artery of the city was blocked for the public, traffic jams were common.

Tejinder Sharma, a daily commuter on Ladowali Road, said, “I take this route daily. But Ladowali Road was closed today and what further irked me was that when I took the alternate route through BSF Chowk, it was also closed. All this without any prior notice. We spent the day deciding which route to take to reach various places in the city.”

A parent at a school on Ladowali Road said, “I pick up my children daily from the school, but today I had to walk a huge stretch with my little daughter because the way was closed. On top of it, on the way home, we encountered huge jams. At least a prior notice should have been given to residents.”

Even patients and their visitors underwent a lot of inconvenience as they had to commute through the entire blocked stretch in front of the hospital on foot.

Even as hundreds of commuters were inconvenienced, officials at the DC’s office maintained that they were only abiding by the Election Commission’s guidelines, which said a stretch of 100 m on either sides of a counting centre should be out of bounds for the general public.

Jalandhar, March 6
Even as the SAD-BJP combine’s win in the Punjab Assembly elections saw history being created today, it was a day of disappointments for Jalandhar women looking to make a mark in politics.

None of the five women candidates who contested the elections from various seats in the district could taste victory.

The most high profile among them was Congress candidate Suman Kaypee (wife of Mohinder Singh Kaypee, sitting Congress MP from Jalandhar) contesting from the Jalandhar (West) constituency.

Other women candidates from the district included Democratic Bharatiya Samaj Party (DBSP) candidate Suman from Nakodar, BSP candidate Hardev Kaur Shant from Jalandhar Cantonment and independent candidates Nishuka and Surjit Kaur from Kartarpur and Jalandhar (Central), respectively.

Nishuka (30) also happens to be the youngest of all candidates in the district.

The total poll percentage in the Doaba region was 70 per cent and in Jalandhar alone, it was 74 per cent.

Interestingly, when it came to an enthusiastic turnout by women voters, the women of the Doaba region led and left men behind.

Kartarpur was one of the 11 Doaba constituencies where women voted more than men. In Kartarpur, women voters lead in numbers (58,068) with male voters being 57,550.

But the enthusiasm of women clearly did not translate into votes for the womenfolk in Kartarpur or the rest of the district.

While Jalandhar (West) was the constituency which saw the least voter turnout in the Doaba region (with 68 per cent polling), for the rest, especially Karatrpur, the voter turnout in the district was very high, but clearly, none of the women candidates figured on the voters’ priority list.

Suman Kaypee lost to Bhagat Chunni Lal of the BJP in Jalandhar (West), Suman to SAD’s Gurpartap Singh Wadala in Nakodar), Hardev Kaur Shant to SAD’s Pargat Singh in Jalandhar Cantonment, Surjit Kaur to BJP’s Manornajan Kalia in Jalandhar (Central) and Nishuka to SAD’s Sarwan Singh in Kartarpur.

Jalandhar, March 6
The Lyallpur Khalsa College for Women organised a farewell party in the college auditorium today. Students took part in cultural events, including group dance, solo dance and choreography, and a quiz competition.