Urban, rural vote divide evident in BJP’s performance in Lok Sabha polls

Neha Saini

Amritsar, June 4

The BJP had been navigating the challenge posed by farmers’ unrest in Punjab by targeting urban voters with promises of development, and boosting trade and commerce.

In Amritsar, divide in BJP’s vote count was quite evident as the saffron party managed to secure higher number of votes in the urban segments than the rural segments.

Total rural, urban vote count

A total of 4,29,487 votes were polled in four Amritsar rural segments that include Majitha, Attari, Ajnala and Rajasansi. In five urban segments of Amritsar North, South, Central, East and West, the total number of votes polled were 4,70,954 for the 18th Lok Sabha elections.

Despite multiple challenges that BJP’s Taranjit Singh Sandhu, who contested his first elections, faced in a tough four-sided electoral battle and the opposition from farmers, he managed to get good number of votes in the urban segments and even secured top spot in Amritsar North segment with the highest vote count.

In Amritsar North segment, which has largely urban population, 1,10,922 votes were polled out of which the BJP got 47,189 votes and Congress’ Aujla, who came a close second, got 28,635. The difference in votes polled between Sandhu and Aujla was 18,554.

In Amritsar Central, a largely urban segment, out of total 79,775 votes polled, the BJP got 35,572 votes and the Congress, came a close second with 24, 878 votes. In Amritsar East, another urban segment with voters from lower middle class section, the BJP secured 29,635 votes while Congress came a close second with 28,440 votes, with a total difference of 1,195 between them. In Amritsar West, the BJP got 30,937 votes while the Congress got 35,012 votes, with close difference of 4,075 votes between the two parties. Only in Amritsar South segment, the BJP came on the third spot behind the AAP and the Congress. The BJP got 15,819 votes, the AAP 28,431 and the Congress bagged 21,782 out of total 82,725 votes polled in Amritsar South segment.

In the rural segments, however, the story was different. The BJP secured fourth position in all rural segments with lowest number of vote count. In Ajnala, the BJP vote count was 14,406 out of total 1,07,896 votes polled; in Rajasansi 11,680 votes out of total 1,13,833; in Majitha 8,056 votes out of total 1,03,790; and in Attari the saffron party secured 13,321 votes.

For Congress’ Aujla, the highest number of rural votes came from Attari and Rajasansi segments, with him securing 32,479 votes in Rajasansi and 32,479 votes in Attari. The SAD, which has a stronghold in Majitha, secured maximum votes in the segment, with Anil Joshi leading with 40,981 votes, followed by the AAP which got 28,530 votes. Similarly, in the AAP stronghold Ajnala, its candidate Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal secured 35,344 votes, which was the maximum vote count, and Congress’ Aujla coming close second with 30,309 votes.