Dakha lone feather in Akali Dal's cap in Ludhiana district

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, March 11

In the AAP tsunami that virtually swept all the Assembly seats barring one, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD-B) failed to put up a spirited performance. Except the rural seat of Dakha from where SAD’s Manpreet Singh Ayali won, AAP candidates won from all the other seats in Ludhiana.

The SAD-B candidates that were pushed down to third place were Jasdeep Kaur Yadu in Khanna (votes secured 26,111), Sharanjit Singh Dhillon in Sahnewal (41,772) and Ranjit Singh Dhillon in Ludhiana East (20,027). Those at the fourth spot were former minister Hira Singh Gabria in Ludhiana South (11,243) , Pritpal Singh Pali in Ludhiana Central (8,220), Maheshinder Singh Grewal in Ludhiana West (10,072) and RD Sharma in Ludhiana North (11,454).

Except for Samrala – Paramjit Singh Dhillon, Gill – Darshan Singh Shivalik and Jagraon – SR Kler, who gave their opponents a tough fight with being the first runners up, all other SAD-B nominees were relegated to third, fourth and even fifth place at the hustings. In Samrala Dhillon lost to AAP’s Jagtar Singh Dyalpura, in Gill the SAD candidate Shivalik conceded defeat to Jiwan Singh Sangowal (AAP) and in Jagraon Kler lost to Sarvjit Kaur Manuke also of AAP.

The lone party nominee to face the ignominy of remaining poor 5th was Harish Rai Dhanda in Atam Nagar segment. He polled just 7,120 votes and trailed behind AAP (winner), Congress, Lok Insaf Party (LIP) and BJP candidates.

At the two seats given to its ally the BSP by the SAD under a pre-poll alliance – Payal and Raikot, Dr Jaspreet Singh Bija and Balwinder Singh Sandhu respectively, also secured third place.