3-1 for Congress in Punjab bypolls
Cong victory on 3 seats, particularly Jalalabad, a fillip for CM, but loss in Dakha a setback
CHANDIGARH: In an emphatic endorsement, the ruling Congress won three of the four seats in the assembly byelections the results of which were declared on Thursday.
The party won the Jalalabad, Mukerian and Phagwara assembly seats but lost in Dakha where SAD candidate Manpreet Singh Ayali dealt the blow to Congress’ Sandeep Singh Sandhu by a margin of 14,672 votes.
Of the three seats it won, the Congress had the biggest victory margin in Phagwara where its candidate Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, a retired IAS officer, trounced Rajesh Bagha of the BJP by 26,116 votes. The biggest surprise was in the Akali stronghold of Jalalabad. Raminder Singh Awla of the Congress won the seat by a margin of 16,633 votes, defeating SAD’s Raj Singh Dibbipur. The Congress also retained Mukerian where its nominee Indu Bala defeated BJP’s Jangi Lal Mahajan.
CHANDIGARH: When chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh was asked just two days after the announcement of the bypolls to four assembly seats last month whether these could be seen as people’s verdict on the first half of his term, he replied in the negative, saying that three of these were opposition seats.
On Thursday, his party romped home on three — Jalalabad, Phagwara and Mukerian — of them, continuing its winning run in the state since its return to power with a two-thirds majority in March 2017.
The CM and other Congress leaders lost no time in claiming the poll outcome to be a victory of their government’s development policies and programmes.
But the ruling party lost the hotly contested Panthic seat of Dakha assembly constituency in which Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Manpreet Singh Ayali trounced Congress’ Sandeep Singh Sandhu, a political aide of the CM, by over 14,000-odd votes despite its whatever-it-takes effort. Amarinder, whose personal prestige was at stake in the constituency, had taken out two roadshows to bolster the prospects of his former political secretary as against one each in the remaining three segments. However, Ayali’s personal connect and hard work provided the muchneeded heft to the SAD. The seat was earlier held by HS Phoolka, the first-time MLA of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The bypoll results have taken the Congress tally to 80 in the 117-strong state assembly.
Though conventional wisdom suggests that the ruling parties have a distinct advantage in bypolls, the Congress victories in three segments, particularly its impressive showing in Jalalabad, which was represented by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal till he got elected to Lok Sabha five months ago, are surely a big fillip for the CM.
The lacklustre SAD-BJP combine and disarray in AAP worked to its advantage.
The Congress had trailed in all four assembly constituencies during the recently held parliamentary polls. Of the three seats the ruling party has won, two, Phagwara and Jalalabad, were held by the BJP and SAD, respectively.
The electoral history of these segments also did not favour the Congress as it had won these seats only one time in the last five elections.