Dimpy Dhillon of AAP gets third-time lucky

After losing two Assembly elections in a row from here as a SAD nominee in 2017 and 2022, a leading transporter, Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, who contested the Gidderbaha bypoll on the AAP ticket, emerged victorious today. He defeated his nearest rival, Amrita Waring of the Congress, by a margin of 21,969 votes.

Dimpy Dhillon stopped the victory chariot of the Warring family and became the first AAP MLA from this constituency. He polled 71,644 votes, while Warring got 49,675. BJP candidate and former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal could manage to secure only 12,227 votes, and lost his security deposit.

Earlier, the Congress nominee’s husband Amrinder Singh Raja Warring had won three elections in a row from the Gidderbaha segment (in 2012, 2017 and 2022). In the last state elections, Raja Warring’s victory margin was just 1,349 votes.

Locals said absence of the SAD from the electoral battle, public sympathy for Dimpy as he had lost two elections, his family’s emotional speeches, development push by the state government ahead of the bypoll and vigorous campaign by the party leadership, including four Cabinet ministers, CM Bhagwant Mann and national convener Arvind Kejriwal, worked in the AAP candidate’s favour.

“Dimpy was able to take along a majority of SAD workers from the constituency with him when he joined AAP in August this year. Further, those left with the SAD were feeling dejected after the party decided to not contest any byelection and a majority of them polled for him,” said some people celebrating his victory.

Speaking to The Tribune, Dimpy said, “I think the Election Commission’s decision to postpone the elections for a week also went in my favour. As of now, I don’t want to say anything to my opponents.”

Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann’s mother Harpal Kaur also came to Dimpy’s residence to give him her blessings.

On her defeat, Amrita Warring said, “This is a defeat of women because it was for the first time that any political party had fielded a woman candidate from Gidderbaha. Now, this is the time for Dimpy Dhillon to perform and fulfil all promises he made during the election campaign.”

PCC chief and Amrita’s husband Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said, “The Congress vote bank has increased in both Gidderbaha and Dera Baba Nanak segments. We expected Manpreet will get 25,000 votes in Gidderbaha, but he got just about 12,000. The situation would have been different if the SAD had contested the election.”

For the past two and a half years, there is no Badal in the Vidhan Sabha. The Gidderbaha byelection was a chance for Manpreet Badal to re-enter the Assembly.

SAD (Amritsar) candidate Sukhraj Singh Niamiwala, son of Behbal Kalan firing incident victim Krishan Bhagwan Singh, got just 715 votes, while NOTA remained on the fourth position with 889 votes.

The namesakes of both Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon and Manpreet Singh Badal failed to make a mark in the Gidderbaha bypoll. Independent candidate Manprit Singh got 141 votes, while Independent Hardeep Singh polled 209.