Congress win fuelled by gains from other parties’ vote share

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, June 4

If AAP votes fell by nearly 1 lakh in a year’s span, the Congress gained the mandate of nearly 1.5 lakh more voters since the May 2023 Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll.

Thus the Congress did not just get its votes back from AAP but also ate into the joint vote share of SAD-BSP who were in an alliance a year back. The SAD-BSP combine had polled 1.58 lakh votes whereas they jointly got 1.3 lakh votes this time. An estimated 5 per cent more votes were polled this time.

In 2023, the AAP had led with 3.02 lakh votes but polled 2.08 lakh votes this time. The Congress which had fielded the widow of former MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary, Karamjit Chaudhary in 2023, had polled 2.43 lakh votes but got 3.90 lakh votes this time with former CM Charanjit Channi in the saddle.

Even as Phillaur Congress MLA Vikramjit Chaudhary maintained that there was no Channi wave in 2022 Assembly polls, his stand against him collapsed with Channi riding high on his own wave this time and winning from seven of the nine segments of Jalandhar parliamentary constituency. The BJP won from Jalandhar Central and Jalandhar North and was at second position in Jalandhar West and Jalandhar Cantonment.

The AAP got second position in five seats including Phillaur, Nakodar, Shahkot, Kartarpur and Adampur. Even as AAP is represented by Local Bodies Minister Balkar Singh in Kartarpur, the party trailed behind by 16,000 votes.

The contest between SAD and BSP candidates, both of whom lost their security deposits, also remained interesting. BSP candidate Balwinder Kumar was ahead of SAD’s Mohinder Singh Kaypee in five segments, including Phillaur, Kartarpur, Jalandhar North, Adampur and Jalandhar Cantonment. The SAD was at No. 3 position only on two seats —- Nakodar where its Jalandhar Rural president Gurpartap S Wadala has remained an MLA in 2007 and 2012, and Shahkot which is being taken care of by Akali veteran Ajit

S Kohar’s grandson Bachitar S Kohar.

For the BJP, the biggest debacle was in Adampur where it could not cross the five-digit mark. It polled only 7,171 votes. Here, BSP candidate Balwinder performed better than his SAD and BJP counterparts and was third after the Congress and AAP.

No big rally for Channi in Jalandhar

Interestingly, Channi who has won by a huge margin did not seek the support of senior Congress leaders for campaigning in Punjab, including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge. He chose to contest on his own, taking out two roadshows with local leaders and workers.

‘I had come to you as Sudama’

Addresssing the media after his victory, Charanjit Channi recited some couplets from Guru Ravidass’s bani and then told everyone, “I had come to you as Sudama and you have blessed me as Lord Krishna.” This also was his opening appeal when he had come to Jalandhar as the Congress candidate almost a month and half back. “The entire campaign was run by my Congress colleagues who took me along everywhere to seek votes,” he said and re-assured that he would set up his house in Jalandhar and work for its development.

Kaypee, Vikramjit, Angural losers in LS poll

The Jalandhar Lok Sabha poll has given a huge setback to three big leaders, including AAP MLA Sheetal Angural, who moved to the BJP to back Sushil Rinku. His resignation got accepted by the Vidhan Sabha Speaker just when he sought to take it back. A question mark remains if the BJP would field him again from Jalandhar West. The next big loser is Kaypee who joined the SAD and has seen the worst of his political career, with his security getting forfeited. The third biggest loser is Vikramjit Chaudhary, who rebelled against Channi, levelled all sorts of allegations against him, got his mother Karamjit Chaudhary to join the BJP, to get himself suspended by the party. The Congress leaders including Adampur MLA Sukhwinder Kotli had already started seeking his resignation from the party.