AAPset: Four assembly segments seal party’s fate

AAP FALLS OUT OF FAVOUR WITH VOTERS IN FOUR OF THE NINE ASSEMBLY SEGMENTS IN THE SANGRUR LOK SABHA BYPOLL

PATIALA: The strong AAP wave that was witnessed during the February 2022 assembly elections seems to have receded with equal force, with the party falling out of favour with voters in four of the nine assembly segments in the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency this time.

During the assembly elections, the party had registered a record lead of 3,74,299 votes from the nine segments. But barely after 100 days, it lost its Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 5,822 votes. The party did manage a lead from five seats -Lehra, Sangrur, Sunam, Dhuri and Mehal Kalan, but failed to dent the overall vote share of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) candidate Simranjit Mann.

In the assembly segments of Sunam, Dhuri and Dirba, AAP had won with a margin of over 50,000 votes during the assembly elections. Though it managed a lead from Dhuri, the other two segments left it disappointed this time. In Dirba, the constituency of finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema, AAP trailed behind the SAD (A) candidate by 7,553 votes. In Barnala, represented by education minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, AAP candidate Gurmail Singh trailed by 2,295 votes. The voters of Barnala are said to be anguished by the security cover of Meet Hayer and his style of functioning.

The other issue, which is said to have miffed the voters, is the “inaccessibility” of chief minister Bhagwant Mann.

On the other hand, the Muslim-dominated Malerkotla and Dalit belt of Dirba came out in SAD (A) candidate Simranjit Mann’s support. Riding on the anti-government sentiment created following the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, Mann managed to garner votes from the rural masses.

In 2019, Sangrur was the only Lok Sabha seat in the country that AAP had in its kitty. In 2014, AAP won this seat along with three other seats in Punjab.