Congress hints at BJP hand in AAP win

A day after losing three of the four Assembly seats in the bypoll, the Punjab Congress leadership has hinted at BJP’s hand in AAP’s victory.

Analysing the poll results, party leaders alleged with the BJP not being able to garner support despite putting up former Akali leaders, top Akali leaders issued instructions for en masse shifting of their voters to AAP at the behest of the top BJP leadership.

First, it kept the SAD, rebel Akalis and radicals out of the bypoll and then, the votes were polled for AAP. “It is just a matter of time that the understanding between Akalis and BJP becomes public,” said Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa.

Gaining confidence of farmers

BJP’s biggest victory, says Bittu

Union Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu said the major gain for the saffron party is that it did not face resistance from the farmers during the election campaign. He thanked farmers for allowing them to campaign, unlike the last Lok Sabha poll. The party lost security deposit of three of the four candidates in the bypoll.

Bajwa said that the Congress increased its vote share in Gidderbaha, Barnala and Dera Baba Nanak. He added, “The same section of voters had opted for the Congress in the recent Lok Sabha poll. The BJP is supporting AAP due to tactical understanding between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and CM Bhagwant Mann in backdrop of his power tussle with Arvind Kejriwal.”

Quoting data, Congress leaders said barring the reserved Chabbewal segment where the party vote share fell to 27 per cent from 41 per cent in the 2022 Assembly poll, the vote share in Gidderbaha (36.3 per cent), Barnala (28.2 per cent) and Dera Baba Nanak (43.1 per cent) has increased.

Contradicting the Congress claim, SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema said no instruction had been issued by the party and it was left to the party workers to decide the best option as per their local factors. Otherwise, the Akali voter never opts for the Congress and the BJP has again been rejected by Punjabis.

Not agreeing with the Congress contention, AAP leaders claim that the recent panchayat elections where a number of sarpanches and panches won with their support and AAP’s top leadership strategising on specific segments did the trick for AAP.