Jalandhar Lok Sabha Bypoll: Can Sushil Rinku’s inclusion in fold change AAP’s fortune?

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar. April 9

The choice of aggressive Ravidassia leader Sushil Rinku as the candidate of Aam Aadmi Party for the May 10 Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll has clearly brought the ruling party in competition with the Congress, which till his joining had a clear upper hand. But a question which is on everyone’s mind is whether Rinku will be able to take the party to the winning position.

Ahead of 2022 Assembly polls when there was a huge wave in favour of AAP across Majha and Malwa, Jalandhar still went with the Congress electing five of its MLAs in the total nine seats. The winning ratio could have been 6:3 had Congress leader Rajinder Beri from Jalandhar Central managed to poll 247 more votes.

Calculated cumulatively, while the Congress polled 3.68 lakh votes for all nine Assembly seats in 2022, AAP trailed at 3.17 lakh votes, falling short of nearly 51,000 votes. AAP won from Jalandhar Central, Jalandhar West, Kartarpur and Nakodar seats but its candidates remained on the third position in Shahkot, Adampur and Jalandhar North seats, where it currently needs to focus. While Rinku will be able to make gains for AAP from the city owing to his personal connect, he will have to work hard in the larger rural belt.

AAP gained significantly in 2022 in comparison to 2019 Lok Sabha polls when Justice Zora Singh finished fourth from here polling only 25,467 votes. AAP’s voteshare in the last Parliamentary polls was just 2.5 per cent, partly because the candidate was too mild. The BSP which had then fought on its own symbol touched an all-time high figure of 2.04 lakh votes. There were as many as 20 candidates in the Lok Sabha 2019 polls of Jalandhar.

In 2022, the SAD-BSP alliance together polled 2.32 lakh votes while the BJP and PLC had collectively got 1.29 lakh votes. Since elections that time were scheduled shortly after the kisan morcha and the BJP leaders had been facing wrath, its candidates polled 26 to 28 per cent votes from three seats of the city, including Jalandhar North, West and Central, but its candidate from Jalandhar Cantt even lost his security deposit. Even though the party is yet to announce its candidate, the leaders have begun working aggressively in the city areas as it will be for the first time that the party will be going solo in the Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP performed dismally in the five rural seats of Jalandhar getting a vote share between as low as 1.09 per cent to 4.41 per cent last year. In contrast, the SAD-BSP alliance faired well in the five rural seats, but its security deposits had got forfeited on all four urban seats.

Lot of work in rural belt

AAP won from Jalandhar Central, Jalandhar West, Kartarpur and Nakodar seats, but its candidates remained on the third position in Shahkot, Adampur and Jalandhar North seats, where it currently needs to focus. While Rinku will be able to make gains for AAP from the city owing to his personal connect, he will have to work hard in the larger rural belt.