LS bypoll, Balkar’s rise kept Jalandhar politically active

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, December 14

Political activities in Jalandhar started on a grim note in 2023. Barely two weeks after the advent of the year, Jalandhar lost its Congress Lok Sabha MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh while he was walking briskly along AICC leader Rahul Gandhi during his Bharat Jodo yatra.

Major developments

• The biggest development that took place around the time was the shifting of former Congress Jalandhar (West) MLA Sushil Rinku to Aam Aadmi Party, getting ticket from the party and winning the polls with a thumping margin.
• Another big political development that happened this year was Kartarpur AAP MLA Balkar Singh getting inducted into the Punjab Cabinet and getting an important portfolio of the Local Bodies Department.

HIGHS

• Sushil Rinku becomes first LS MP of AAP
• Balkar Singh gets entry into Cabinet, portfolio of Local Bodies Minister

LOWS

• Demise of Congress MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh
• Ugly spat between AAP leaders MP Rinku and MLA Angural

His demise necessitated Lok Sabha byelection, polling for which took place on May 10. The byelection kept the city politically much active for nearly two months. The biggest development that took place around the time was the shifting of former Congress Jalandhar (West) MLA Sushil Rinku to Aam Aadmi Party, getting ticket from the party and winning the polls with a thumping margin. He became the first LS MP of AAP from across the country. The Congress, which picked Santokh Singh’s wife Karamjit Chaudhary expecting sympathy vote for her, lost the poll by 58,691 votes.

While the AAP rejoiced in victory, which was seen as a battle of prestige for it after the Sangrur bypoll debacle, had one MLA feeling uncomfortable. Rinku, who had lost to his arch-rival Jalandhar (West) MLA Sheetal Angural, had now become his boss in the same party and Angural felt that he had been decimated.

Angural often had his outbursts going public but the rift showed wide open after his FB video against Rinku in mid-October this year. He had been summoned to the AAP head office on the issue the next day. If there was one thing good that happened for him, it was his acquittal by a Jalandhar court in a gambling case dating back to 2020.

The LS byelection also provided much fillip to the BJP which won in two Assembly segments of Jalandhar Central and Jalandhar North. The party, which fought solo for the first time in LS in Jalandhar, had six union ministers backing the candidate Inder Iqbal Atwal.

After the byelection, all parties have been gearing up for the MC polls, which have not yet been scheduled. In the past 8-10 months, several councillors, who were earlier with the Congress, BJP or SAD, have moved to AAP hoping for better prospects.

Another big political development that happened this year was Kartarpur AAP MLA Balkar Singh getting inducted into the Punjab Cabinet and getting an important portfolio of the Local Bodies Department. His career, however, remains riddled with at least two big controversies.

An all-Opposition party meeting held in Jalandhar this year also remained a big talk where SAD general secretary Bikram Majithia and former PPCC chief Navjot Sidhu, who have remained arch-rivals, hugged each other. Both Majithia and Sidhu had contested Assembly polls against each other. They both lost to the AAP candidate on the Amritsar (East) seat.