Manpreet Singh Badal fails to re-enter Vidhan Sabha
BJP candidate and former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Saturday failed to find a way to re-enter the Vidhan Sabha by contesting Gidderbaha Assembly bypoll. He got 12,227 votes polled and remained on third position, and lost his security deposit as well.
Manpreet did not even come at the counting centre in Gidderbaha and chose to stay at his residence in Badal village.
A candidate was required to get one-sixth of the total valid votes polled (22,891 votes out of a total of 1,37,348 votes polled) to save the security deposit. But, Manpreet got 12,227 votes.
Manpreet had been elected as MLA Gidderbaha four times in a row in 1995 (a bypoll), 1997, 2002 and 2007 as a SAD candidate. However, he had switched to Bathinda Urban constituency in 2017, won as a Congress nominee and became the finance minister for the second time.
In 2022, Manpreet lost to AAP candidate Jagroop Singh Gill by 63,581 votes and had returned to Gidderbaha before this bypoll.
Notably, Union Minister of State Ravneet Singh Bittu had held the reins of his election campaign and remained here for almost a week. Besides, BJP’s state in-charge and ex-CM of Gujarat Vijay Rupani, national general secretary Tarun Chugh, senior leaders Avinash Rai Khanna, Ashwani Sharma and Vijay Sampla had campaigned for him.
Manpreet was mainly banking on the central government sponsored schemes, the works done by him in the constituency during his tenure as an MLA and finance minister. Further, he had tried hard to cash in on the legacy of his uncle-cum-former CM Parkash Singh Badal by posting his old videos on social media.
In a recent interview with The Tribune, Manpreet had said, “I miss Badal sahib (Parkash Singh Badal) in this election, as this election is also against the government, like 1995 when I started my political career under his guidance.”
Some farm unions had earlier lodged protests against Manpreet in the constituency for being a BJP candidate. However, later, when he gave an assurance to become a middle-man between them and the central government for their demands, the farmers had relented. He had managed to set up the saffron party’s booths in all 52 villages on the polling day.
Some key factors for his defeat
The Tribune spoke to a number of voters, who gave these reasons for Manpreet’s drubbing:
Manpreet’s election campaign turned slow in the last two days.
A majority of farmers are still unhappy with the BJP for its three controversial farm laws (now repealed).
Manpreet joined many political parties. He was earlier a SAD leader, but later formed PPP, then merged it with the Congress, and later joined the BJP.
Manpreet turned inactive in the constituency after losing the Assembly election in 2012.
The SAD’s vote bank mainly diverted to AAP candidate Dimpy Dhillon.
