Fate of six Chabbewal byelection nominees sealed, results on Nov 23

The fate of six candidates, who are in the fray for the Chabbewal Assembly bypoll, was sealed in the EVMs as voting process got completed this evening. The counting of votes is slated for November 23.

While Aam Aadmi Party candidate Ishank Kumar and his MP father Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal was confident of the victory with claims of winning the seat by 30,000 votes, even the Congress camp was quite upbeat as the polling progressed. Hoshiarpur MP Chabbewal maintained, “When I won the Hoshiarpur Parliamentary seat in June this year, I got a winning margin of 27,000 votes from this seat. I am expecting it to grow to at least 30,000 with my son being in fray this time”.

Dr Raj Kumar maintained that it was quite a different election for him. “Unlike my younger son who is settled in the US, Ishank has always come to my support in the elections. But this election was different as now he was the candidate and I was his back-end support. I did not have to give him any training on maintaining a certain kind of body language or making speeches or delivering the right content and narrative. It came to him all naturally and with experience.”

The only difference between me and him has been that he has started way to early. “He is just 31 and single. I was 45, settled in career and had two kids at that time. Ishank had just returned from Chennai after completing his MD in radiology when he got into electioneering. He was yet to start taking over the management of scanning centres across the region which I have been doing. He had to take up politics even before he could start to pursue his medical profession”, he said.

Like AAP, even the Congress leadership was quite upbeat. Congress leaders said winning by 30,000 votes was an illusion of Dr Chabbewal. “It can be any one’s game. There are several factors which have worked in our favour. The extension of voting date by a week was definitely my gain. It helped me reach out more people. The BSP cadres worked in our favour. The farmers have not voted for either AAP or the BJP because of paddy procurement issues. They would have voted for us. Several people within the AAP have also helped us”, said Congress candidate Ranjit Kumar.

Even the BJP candidate Thandal held that it was a triangular fight with no clear edge. “With the Akalis not putting up a candidate and my strong connect with its leaders for over two decades, I consider myself at an advantageous position”, he said.

Polling trend in last 3 elections:

2012: Sohan S Thandal (SAD)

2017: Dr Raj Kumar (Cong)

2022: Dr Raj Kumar (Cong)