Chabbewal nominees make all-out efforts to woo Akali voters

The November 20 byelection in the Chabbewal Assembly constituency has become interesting with the SAD’s absence from the fray for the first time.

All parties, except the Aam Aadmi Party, have fielded party hoppers. Interestingly, all of them are contesting from the parties which they have vehemently opposed earlier. As a result, the mathematics of votes might become a bit complicated this time.

Aam Aadmi Party candidate Dr Ishank Kumar’s father Dr Raj Kumar was a two-time MLA from the Congress, and currently he’s an AAP MP.

Congress candidate Ranjit Kumar was in the Bahujan Samaj Party for a long time. He had contested the last Lok Sabha election on the BSP ticket. He is confident of getting support from his old friends from the BSP in the area. On the other hand, BJP candidate Sohan Singh Thandal was a minister in the Akali-BJP government and remained with the SAD for more than two decades. He contested the last Lok Sabha elections from the SAD. He suddenly left the party and joined the BJP.

Besides traditional vote bank of their respective parties, all candidates are eyeing the vote bank of SAD, which made its strong presence felt during the last Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly election in 2022. While Thandal battles the anti-BJP sentiment that intensified after the farmers’ movement, Dr Kumar and Ranjit are trying every trick to woo Akali Dal voters.

In the 2022 Assembly elections, the BJP got 4,073 votes, but its vote share increased to 9,472 in the Lok Sabha poll held this year. Similarly, SAD got 19,329 votes in the Assembly poll in 2022, which decreased to 11,935 during the last Lok Sabha poll. Dr Raj Kumar of the Congress got 47,375 votes. During the Lok Sabha elections after Dr Raj Kumar joined AAP, Congress candidate Yamini Gomar could get only 18,162 votes. AAP, which got 39,729 votes from Chabbewal in 2022, during the Lok Sabha elections got 28,955 votes. During the last Lok Sabha elections, a big change was seen in the vote percentage of the parties and if this trend continues in the Assembly byelections, then traditional vote bank of SAD, which is not contesting the election, is likely to play a big role in the election results.