Punjab election results: 14 of 23 MLAs from Doaba are first-timers

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, March 10

The new Punjab Vidhan Sabha will have as many as 14 fresh faces from Doaba, with the region’s electors reposing faith only in nine of the 23 sitting MLAs.

Of the 10 AAP candidates, nine are new comers with Garhshankar sitting MLA Jai Kishan Rouri being the only exception. Among the nine Congress winners, there are two first-timers — Vikramjit Chaudhary from Phillaur and Sukhwinder Kotli from Adampur.

In the BJP as all its bigwigs lost this time, only its Mukerian candidate Jangi Lal Mahajan got picked by the voters to represent them for the next five years. BSP’ state general secretary and the party’s oldest loyalist Dr Nachhatar Pal Singh made it for the first time from general Nawanshahr seat. Even in Sultanpur Lodhi, Independent candidate Rana Inder Partap Singh sailed through in his maiden elections.

The nine new AAP legislators include some candidates with very interesting profiles. Its new Nakodar MLA Inderjit Kaur Mann (53) has been a farmer and a woman activist. She had joined politics in 2002 as a Block Samiti member. She was also the sarpanch of Bir Pind for three consecutive terms wherein she initiated several new projects in her village. She has defeated SAD’s two-time MLA Gurpartap Wadala by 2,869 votes.

AAP’s Jalandhar Central candidate Raman Arora has been a cloth merchant. He is also known to be a bhajan singer in temples. Like Inderjit Mann, he too had joined AAP just few months back. He has defeated Congress MLA Rajinder Beri with a thin margin of 247 votes. BJP’s Manoranjan Kalia came third from this seat.

Kartarpur AAP winner Balkar Singh has been a retired PPS officer. He has trounced ex-Congress stalwart Chaudhary Jagjit Singh’s son Chaudhary Surinder Singh from this reserved seat with 4,574 votes. Balkar had remained Deputy Commissioner of Police in Jalandhar. He had served the Punjab Police for 32 years wherein he had also been Kartarpur DSP. He had had joined the party in June last year.

AAP’s winner from Sham Chaurasi Dr Ravjot Singh is MD (Medicine) and runs his own hospital. He had joined the AAP from its initial days. This was his third election. He had lost in 2017 from the same seat against Congress’ Pawan Adia. This time Dr Ravjot polled the highest votes in Doaba getting 60,730 votes against Adia, who trailed far behind at 39,374 votes.

AAP’s other first timers include some party hoppers. Sheetal Angural from Jalandhar West was youth leader from the BJP before he moved to AAP. Brahm Shankar Jimpa, who has won from Hoshiarpur was MC councillor and ex-Vice Chairman of Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation, before joining AAP. Karanbir Ghumman, who has won from Dasuya, was the loyalist of ex-Congress minister Ramesh Chander Dogra.