AAP CANDIDATE BLAMES PARTY’S RADICAL SLANT FOR POLL LOSS
BATHINDA: The Aam Admi Party's (AAP) Bathinda Urban candidate Deepak Bansal on Tuesday blamed the party's senior leadership cozying up to Sikh radicals for his debacle in the assembly polls here, claiming “Hindu community of Bathinda drifted away from AAP for this reason only”.
“I will raise this issue at the party forum,” Deepak told HT. “I personally feel that AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Sikh radical Balwant Singh Nandgarh and Sikh preacher Panthpreet Singh and the party icon’s stay at the residence of a reportedly former militant in Moga was encashed by both the Congress and SAD.”
It may be recalled here that Panthpreet's associate Jagdev Singh Kamalu successfully got the AAP ticket to clinch the Maur assembly seat.
Deepak on Sunday night held a three-hour poll review meeting of his party cadres here, saying that the booth-wise review had also revealed that the votes in slum areas were "bought over".
“The distribution of cash and ration were the two modes that came to the fore for buying the votes of the poor,” he said.
The AAP had fielded Deepak as a fresh face, considering the nearly 40% Hindu vote bank in Bathinda Urban. The Congress’ dark horse Manpreet Badal, who defeated Deepak by 18,480 votes, had carefully given impetus to his poll campaign, even performing a ‘havan’ at the inauguration of his party office here.
THE CONTRAST
Unlike Bathinda Urban, the AAP has wrested the peasantry class-dominated Bathinda Rural, Maur and Talwandi Sabo egments. Bhuccho and Rampura Phul went to the Congress.
AAP's Jagdev Singh Kamalu defeated SAD’s Janmeja Singh Sekhon by 14,677 votes in Maur, while Baljinder had a cake walk in Talwandi Sabo, defeating Congress’ Khushbaaz Singh Jatana by 19,293 votes. Ruby defeated SAD’s Amit Rattan Kotfatta by 10,778 votes in Bathinda Rural assembly segment.