Breach of bastion a blow for Congress

CHANDIGARH: The loss in the crucial byelection to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency is a huge setback for the Congress ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The principal opposition party in Punjab failed to retain the reserved seat that was considered its impregnable fortress. It lost the seat to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) by a hefty margin. Since 1999, the party had an unbeaten track record in this parliamentary constituency, which it lost only four times in the past seven decades. In the state assembly polls last year also, it held on to its own in the area in the face of an AAP wave by winning five of the nine seats.

The Congress, however, slipped badly in the bypoll necessitated due to the death of its two-time MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary in January this year. The party, which named Chaudhary’s wife Karamjit Kaur as its candidate, trailed behind the AAP in all nine assembly segments in rural and urban areas, including Phillaur, Shahkot, Jalandhar North, Jalandhar Cantonment and Adampur that it represents in the state assembly. The party got 27.44% of the 8.87 lakh votes polled. “These segments were expected to lay the foundation of our victory but things did not turn out that way. We will analyse the result,” a party leader said, requesting anonymity.

Counting on the Chaudhary family’s connect with people, sympathy factor, and its traditional support among influential ‘deras’ for a repeat of its strong showing in the area just a year ago, the party had put up a united front with Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, and former CM Charanjit Singh Channi leading the campaign. Another four to five present and former MLAs were deployed in each of the nine assembly segments. They all focused on small rallies and corner meetings, targeting the AAP government over the breakdown of law and order, political vendetta and failure to fulfill the poll guarantee of ₹1,000 per month to all women. The party, however, failed to find a counter to the ruling party’s campaign centered on zero electricity bills, zero tolerance for corruption and an appeal to people for an opportunity to serve. CM Bhagwant Mann also did not let go of any opportunity to attack the Congress on vigilance cases against its leaders.

Ashutosh Kumar, a professor of political science at Panjab University, Chandigarh, said that though the ruling parties usually have an advantage in byelections, the Congress had a lot going for it in this traditional stronghold. “They failed match the campaign of the ruling party. The outcome does not augur well for them. A win here would have been a morale booster for the party cadre,” he said.