We couldn’t estimate, says Rinku on Lok Sabha poll loss
Aparna Banerji
Jalandhar, June 5
A day after the BJP lost the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat to Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi by a margin of 1,75,993 votes, the party already seems to be gearing up for the upcoming MC elections. After Jalandhar West MLA Sheetal Angural’s resignation was accepted by the Vidhan Sabha on May 30, Sushil Rinku today could be seen boosting cadres to prepare for both the MC elections and the bypoll for the Jalandhar West Assembly constituency, necessitated because of Angural’s withdrawal.
Expressing surprise at the “polarization” and “undercurrent” in the polls, Rinku said, “Even the victor wasn’t aware of the undercurrent. Had the BSP and Akali votes been saved, the results would have been different.”
While Sheetal Angural had earlier said he would challenge the decision (of the acceptance of his resignation by the state government) in court, today Angural patiently sat by Rinku as he expressed possibility of a bypoll.
While the BJP failed to bag even a single seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Punjab, Rinku who has been taking credit for the increased poll margin of the BJP in Jalandhar ever since, asked workers not to be get discouraged by the poll results. The BJP candidate Inder Iqbal Singh, in the 2023 Jalandhar bypoll, had received 1,34,800 votes (fourth on Jalandhar seat and losing his security deposit). This year, Rinku received 2,14,060 votes on the seat.
Addressing workers, Rinku said, “We fought a very good fight. Every effort was made and there was no dearth of hard work by our workers. We have increased our vote share in the constituency by 80,000 votes, despite challenges caused by the BJP going it alone in the state for the first time. We could not estimate the polarisation of votes. Even the winner wasn’t aware so many votes would be received by him. On the one hand, people voted for Shri Ram, and on the other, all sections got together. None of the surveys could predict that the victory margin on the seat would be such. We thought the undercurrent was on our side, but it was on the other side. We couldn’t estimate. The Akali Dal and BJP both couldn’t save their vote banks. Had they saved their vote bank, things would have been different.” Speaking further, Rinku said, “This was just an election. We haven’t lost our life, only an election.”
Rinku asked workers to prepare for the Municipal Council election which is slated to be held in two to three months. “The MC poll is expected to be held in 2-3 months and may be the Jalandhar West bypoll will also get scheduled. But you stay in high spirits as the government is ours, whether it’s formed today or tomorrow. The day our Prime Minister takes oath, we will celebrate.”
