Jalandhar, May 16
With the Congress retaining the Jalandhar (Reserve) parliamentary constituency, there was a festive atmosphere in the party camp here today. When the Election Commission declaring the results in the afternoon, a wave of joy spread among the Congress cadre. The victory was not only significant for the political revival of the party in the Dalit-dominated Doaba region, the win also gave a new lease of life to the political career of Chaudhary Santokh Singh, who had lost the last two assembly polls in a row.

Jalandhar, May 16
With the Congress registering its victory in the Jalandhar (Reserve) parliamentary constituency, not only the party has retained its stronghold, considered to be the heart of Doaba, it has also managed to surpass the SAD-BJP votes in seven of the nine assembly segments compared to the 2012 Assembly elections.

Except for the Nakodar and Shahkot assembly segments, the ruling combine has lost to the Congress in Phillaur (SC), Kartarpur (SC), Jalandhar (Cantonment), Jalandhar (North), Jalandhar (West) SC, Jalandhar (Central) and Adampur (SC). Interestingly, Tinu is presently MLA from the Adampur (SC) assembly segment. The poor show of the ruling combine is mainly due to the strong anti-incumbency wave against the SAD-BJP government in Punjab. An analysis of the Assembly segments has brought to light some significant factors that led to the decline in the number of votes polled for the Akali candidate. However, it would be too early to comment on the political repercussions within the Akali-BJP combine on account of the party’s dismal performance. Insiders in the SAD and BJP have said that there would be certain changes as part of the course correction exercise. Besides, a cabinet reshuffle, heads of some of the some of political appointees are also likely to roll. The BJP which has won by a thumping margin pan India has its three sitting party MLAs losing to Congress candidates in their respective Assembly segments here by a significant margin. The loss is significant, as the three seats, including Jalandhar (North), (Central) and (West) have been with the BJP for the past two Assembly polls.

Jalandhar (North): Despite facing charges against him under the People’s Representation Act for holding a British passport, Avtar Henry came in whole-hearted support of Chaudhary Santokh Singh. Even as cousins Dinesh Dhall and Amit Dhall from this constituency were inducted by SAD president Sukhbir Badal, that reportedly backfired, as both of them were history-sheeters with several FIRs registered against them.

Jalandhar West (SC): The voters from this constituency were perhaps peeved over the fact that even as their area MLA Bhagat Chunni Lal had been given the topmost portfolio of Local Bodies ministry, he failed to improve their plight. The octogenarian minister, who is also labeled as the most inactive leader of the party, could not even get the condition of extremely bad roads, sewage system and other basic civic amenities in his constituency improved.

Jalandhar (Central): BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia had won from this seat by a thin margin of 1,065 votes in 2012 polls, but the Congress candidate has increased his margin 10 times to 10,250 votes. Kalia’s rival Rajinder Beri had been elevated as District Congress Committee (Urban) recently and he has managed to lead the party well.

Jalandhar Cantonment: Even as this traditionally Congress constituency had gone to Olympian and former sports director and SAD leader Pargat Singh with 6,798 more votes in just 20 days of campaigning ahead of the 2012 Assembly seat, this half-urban and half-rural seat has gone back to the Congress. AAP candidate Jyoti Mann has polled more seats than the SAD candidate Pawan Tinu. Mann managed to get as many as 34,368 seats from here, 29 more than her Akali counterpart.

Adampur (SC): The biggest disaster for the SAD candidate was to lose from his own Assembly seat of Adampur and that too by a margin of 4,466 votes. He had been a winner in the 2012 polls from here with a thumping margin of 19,306 votes. Tinu polled 29,966 votes from here and the AAP candidate too stands close at 28,164 votes.

Kartarpur (SC): The erstwhile citadel of Chaudhary Jagjit Singh from where he had won seven times in a row but lost to the SAD candidates in the last two Assembly seats also brought back smile on the candidate’s big brother. Even though he had lost by a slender margin of 823 votes, he routed the SAD candidate and Jails Minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur by 12,599 votes. Phillaur has already been facing much defiance and the voters here know that his son Damanvir Singh has been avoiding summons of the Enforcement Directorate in the Bhola case.

Jalalndhar, May 16
Nearly 100 officials from the banking and insurance services, deployed on election duty at the counting centre here, were not paid their election allowance.

Annoyed at this, they held a protest against the district administration.

Jaswinder Singh, Inderpal Singh and IS Nijjar said they were engaged by the district administration on election duty in the reserve category, but they were not paid election allowance. “We are employees of banks and insurance sectors and before joining the election duty, we were told by the administration that we would be paid election allowance. Now, we are made to run from pillar to post to get our allowance,” they said. They also met several senior district administration officials but nobody was ready to listen to them.

Most of the persons holding the protest were engaged by the election office as counting assistant, micro-observers and counting supervisors. They said they had also apprised the Deputy Commissioner of the matter.

When contacted, general observer, Ateeq Ahmed, said he would look into the matter and if these persons were not paid their election allowance, he would ensure to release the same soon.

Some of the protesters even alleged that they were not even served food. Although we were put in the reserve category, we were not served food by the district administration, they alleged.

Jalandhar May 16
Despite the tall claims made by the district administration of having made adequate arrangements at the counting centre, the situation was actually the opposite. From serving food to the persons engaged in poll duty or keeping a check on the entry of party workers along with the candidates at the counting centres, nothing was followed in a proper spirit.

There was no proper arrangement made to disburse the round-wise counting details of votes at the centre. No screen or blackboard was installed outside the counting centre for giving minute-to-minute update of votes. Although a speaker was installed to disburse the constituency-wise details, the facility was limited to a few counting centres only. Due to the rising heat, the police officials and other individuals inside the counting centre regretted that drinking water facility was lacking.

Interestingly, towards the end, when counting had already been completed, officials took almost an hour to divulge the final information citing that they were yet to complete the formalities. The winning candidate, Chaudhary Santok Singh of Congress along with his supporters, had to wait for over an hour to receive his certificate from the election officials. Election officials said the signature of election officials was pending which delayed the preparation of the winner’s certificate.

Jalandhar, May 16
Fielded from the Jalandhar assembly constituency, Jyoti Mann, the candidate of the Aam Admi Party for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency, bagged a whopping 2,54,104 votes in the district.

The candidate who had one of the most delayed entries into the poll fray of the AAP in the state, Mann, a novice, has eaten into the SAD's vote share in Jalandhar causing the defeat of the party candidate Pawan Kumar Tinu.

A closer analysis of the poll trends in various assembly constituencies of the Jalandhar Lok Sabha segment revealed that Mann had bagged a greater vote share in many of the traditional Congress and SAD strongholds in Jalandhar.

Across nine assembly segments in the district, Mann has left her opponents in the SAD and Congress behind in four of the assembly constituencies. While in Jalandhar Cantonment and Phillaur, she has bagged more votes than the SAD, in the Shahkot and Nakodar and assembly constituencies, she has bagged more votes than the Congress.

While the Adampur segment is traditionally an Akali stronghold, her tally is also close to that of the SAD there.

Mann has bagged 34,368 votes in the Jalandhar Cantonment assembly constituency, leaving behind the Akali candidate — who has bagged 34,368 votes — by 29 votes. In Phillaur, she received 1,800 more votes than the SAD candidate, getting 33,213 votes while her opponent got 31,413.

Similarly, in Nakodar, she has received 36,700 votes, 4,060 more than Congress' Santokh Singh Chaudhary, who received 32,640 votes. Mann has also left her Congress opponent behind in Shahkot, bagging 29,896 votes, 697 more than Santokh Chaudhary's 29,199.

A jubilant Sumail Singh Sidhu, state convener of the AAP, speaking about the party’s future plans, said, "We are very happy that the party has done well in Punjab. Undoubtedly, the vote share suggests that at many places, we were very close to grabbing a win.”

Jalandhar, May 16
With Punjab politics veering towards the AAP and a Modi wave sweeping across the nation, residents in the district saw an exciting mix of messages on various social media sites today.

While on the one hand, the media was flooded with stinging jibes at Kejriwal, on the other, an aggressive pro-Modi rhetoric filled the virtual space with Modi being hailed as a ‘Lion’ and ‘Dabangg’ with graphics of flags being hoisted in his name and flowers being rained on him eating up the social media space. Facebook posts of AAP lovers in the state were primarily filled with images of an emotional Bhagwant Mann breaking down after his thumping victory in Sangrur and TV grabs declaring his win.

Elsewhere, posters made in favour of national AAP candidates were posted, which compared “Samajsevi” AAP candidates with their “Bhrashtachari” counterparts who won. Taking a dig at the situation, AAP sympathisers declared, “Punjab Jaaga...Bharat Soya.”

Interestingly, of all the winning candidates including the AAP and non-AAP candidates in Punjab, Bhagwant Mann's media space was the most abuzz with the pictures of the party candidate from Sangrur Bhagwant Mann.

Jibes at Kejriwal and the Congress also circulated on WhatsApp. Prime ones were a picture of the AAP convener making laddoos. Other pictures included him declaring, "Desh Ki Janata Bhi Modi Ke Saath Mili Hui Hai" or one with him selling brooms after May 16.—TNS