Losing 6 of 9 Gurdaspur segments cost BJP dear

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, June 6

Reverses suffered by Congress candidate Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa in the three BJP strongholds of the Pathankot constituency are on the expected lines, but what proved to be a revelation was the huge leads Congress MLAs gave him from their respective seats.

Days before the polling, BJP leaders spoke in one voice about taking a massive combined lead from the BJP strongholds of Bhoa, Pathankot and Sujanpur for their nominee Dinesh Babbu.

Their candidate certainly did take a lead but it was limited to 61,051 votes, much less than the 1 lakh lead expected by them. This was because in the 2019 elections, Sunny Deol had taken a 1.10 lakh lead.

The Congress was prepared for this onslaught. Reason enough for Randhawa’s think-tank to ask all six Congress legislators of this constituency to work hard to ensure he countered the lead the BJP would get from the three seats. He also exhorted them to make sure he got a substantial lead from their seats, which would be enough for him to emerge triumphant.

In Gurdaspur, sitting MLA Barindermeet Singh Pahra marshalled his resources diligently. Randhawa polled 36,981 votes from the Gurdaspur Assembly seat, which was 15,027 votes more than what Babbu got. In Dinanagar, four-time MLA Aruna Chowdhury campaigned hard in both rural and urban areas to manage a 8,459 lead.

In Qadian, the home seat of Leader of the Opposition Parpat Singh Bajwa, Randhawa stunned his rivals by getting a massive 28,847 lead. In Batala, where AAP candidate Sherry Kalsi is the sitting MLA and subsequently was expected to do well, Randhawa scampered through with 935 more votes than Kalsi and 13,974 more votes than Babbu.

In Fatehgarh Churian, Randhawa polled a whopping 35,539 more votes than his BJP rival while in his home seat of Dera Baba Nanak, he stunned even his detractors by taking a huge 42,217 vote lead, leaving Babbu perplexed at the turn of events.

Notably, these were the two seats where Babbu was not allowed by the protesting farmers to campaign. “Babbu should take solace from the fact that even Sunny Deol lost each of these seats by 20,000 odd votes,” said a BJP leader.

Out of the six Congress MLAs, the only one who could not provide a lead was Naresh Puri, sitting Sujanpur legislator. “However, Puri should not be faulted. After all, Dinesh Babbu has remained an MLA from Sujanpur for three successive terms and he still wields a lot of influence there despite the fact that he is no longer an MLA,” said a BJP leader.