In the by-elections to be held on 4 assembly seats of Punjab, while distributing tickets, the parties showed more confidence in nepotism and turncoats. Among the 12 candidates fielded by Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and BJP, 6 are turncoats, 2 MPs’ wives and one MP’s son.
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Congress and AAP also gave only 3 tickets to their cadre. By-elections have become interesting with big political faces and political families entering the fray. Akali Dal has decided not to contest the by-elections.
The four seats where by-elections are being held include Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal and Barnala. The MLA here has become a Lok Sabha member. Of these, Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak and Chabbewal seats were with Congress, while AAP’s Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer was the MLA from Barnala.
These four seats fall in the rural belt of Punjab where Congress and Akali Dal had their support base. In 2022, if Congress won in Gidderbaha and Dera Baba Nanak, Akali Dal stood second. AAP stood third in both these seats and second in Chabbewal seat. AAP was victorious in Barnala while Akali Dal candidate came second.
If we talk about BJP, then in 2022 it stood fifth in Barnala and Dera Baba Nanak seats and fourth in Chabbewal. In Gidderbaha seat, the candidate of his ally Captain Amarinder Singh’s party, PLC, stood fifth with just 379 votes. Later the Captain merged his party with BJP.
Let us now read the facts related to the candidates of the three parties…
Congress: Tickets to wives of 2 MPs, one turncoat Congress has given ticket to Amrita Vading from Giddarbaha seat of Muktsar district and Jatinder Kaur from Dera Baba Nanak seat. Amrita Wadding is the wife of Punjab Congress chief and Ludhiana Lok Sabha MP Amarinder Singh Raja Wadding. Raja Vading won 3 consecutive elections from Gidderbaha from 2012 to 2022.
Jatinder Kaur is the wife of Gurdaspur Lok Sabha MP and former Punjab Deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. Kuldeep Singh Dhillon, who is close to Raja Vading, was made the candidate from Barnala seat.
Ranjit Kumar, who left Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) just a week ago, has got a chance from Chabbewal seat. Ranjit, who has been the president of the District Bar Association twice, contested the Lok Sabha elections from Hoshiarpur seat on BSP ticket this year. He has been associated with BSP since the time of Kanshi Ram and has been continuously active in Hoshiarpur since 1996.
After winning 7 out of 13 seats in Punjab in the Lok Sabha elections, the morale of Congress leaders is high. He claims that people are fed up with the AAP government in just two and a half years and are once again looking towards Congress as an alternative. By giving tickets to the family members of the MPs, the party has directly given them the responsibility of retaining their seats.
AAP: Tickets given to MP’s son and college friend, one candidate defected Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced its candidates first compared to other parties. Of its four candidates, one is the son of an MP, the other is the MP’s college friend and the third is a turncoat.
AAP fielded Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon as its candidate from Gidderbaha seat. Dimpy Dhillon contested the assembly elections from Gidderbaha in 2022 on Akali Dal ticket and stood second with 49,649 votes. He was counted among the close friends of Sukhbir Badal. This time, seeing the possibility of being denied ticket in the by-election, he joined AAP. In 2022, AAP stood third on this seat.
Ishank Chabbewal has been given ticket from Chabbewal seat of Hoshiarpur district. His father Dr. Rajkumar Chabbewal is AAP’s Lok Sabha MP from Hoshiarpur. Dr. Rajkumar became MLA from Chabbewal on Congress ticket in the 2022 elections. Before the Lok Sabha elections, he changed party to AAP.
AAP has fielded Harinder Singh Dhaliwal as its candidate from Barnala seat. He is a college time friend of MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer. As soon as the candidature of Harinder Singh was announced here, AAP District President Gurdeep Singh Bath started showing rebellious attitude. Punjab Cabinet Minister Aman Arora also visited the house of Baath, who had resigned from the post of Chairman of the District Planning Board, to console him.
Gurdeep Singh Randhawa has been made the candidate again from Dera Baba Nanak. In the 2022 elections, Gurdeep Singh lost to Congress candidate Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa by just 466 votes.
BJP: All four candidates came from other parties All four candidates of BJP have joined the party after switching parties. The party even kept the ticket for Chabbewal seat on hold for former minister Sohan Singh Thandal for two days. Thandal, who started politics with the Akali Dal, joined the BJP on Thursday, a day before the end of the nomination date. A few hours after joining BJP, his candidature from Chabbewal seat was announced.
BJP has given ticket to Manpreet Badal from Gidderbaha. Manpreet has been in all the parties of Punjab except AAP. He started with Akali Dal. Formed his own party in 2011 and joined Congress after 2012. He was the Finance Minister of the state in the Akali-BJP coalition and Congress governments. In January 2023, he left Congress and joined BJP. He is the nephew of former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and cousin of Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Badal. Manpreet is the person who brought the current CM of Punjab Bhagwant Mann into politics.
Kewal Singh Dhillon, BJP candidate from Barnala seat, left Congress and joined the party on 4 June 2022, after the 2022 assembly elections. Dhillon has been MLA from Barnala twice on Congress ticket, in 2007 and 2012. In 2017 he lost to AAP’s Meet Hayer. Only Dhillon is among the leaders close to former Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh.
BJP has given a chance to Ravikaran Kahlon from Dera Baba Nanak seat. His father Nirmal Singh Kahlon was the assembly speaker during the SAD-BJP government from 2007 to 2012. He was also a minister in Punjab from 1997 to 2002. Ravikaran Kahlon contested the elections from Dera Baba Nanak in 2022 on Akali Dal ticket and lost by just 466 votes. He joined BJP before the Lok Sabha elections.
Akali Dal: Away from elections for the first time in 32 years This is the first time in the last 32 years in Punjab that the state’s main regional party, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has decided not to contest the elections. Earlier, Akali Dal had boycotted the Punjab Assembly elections held in 1992. There are two main reasons for Akali Dal not contesting the elections this time.
First reason- Akal Takht Sahib, the supreme body of the Sikh community, has declared Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Badal as a hangman over the mistakes committed during the Akali-BJP government between 2007 and 2017. At present Sukhbir has not been sentenced. Akal Takht will pronounce its verdict on his sentence after Diwali. If Sukhbir, who had been declared a pensioner, had entered the campaign, the opposition parties could have made it an issue of morality.
Second reason- There is a fierce mutual tussle going on among the Akali leaders on the issue of party leadership. Many leaders have appealed to Akal Takht to remove Sukhbir Badal from the post of party chief. The situation of Akali Dal, which had lost badly in the 2017 and 2022 assembly elections, is not good on all four seats. In such a situation, if he loses the by-election, Sukhbir’s opponents will get another opportunity to attack him. The party does not want this.
First by-election in rural area after Khalistan supporter became MP. In the Lok Sabha elections held this year, Congress won 7 out of 13 seats in Punjab while AAP got 3 seats. Khalistan supporter Amritpal was elected MP from Khadur Sahib. Sarabjit Singh Khalsa, son of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassin Beant Singh, won the Faridkot Lok Sabha seat as an independent candidate because of people’s resentment towards the Congress due to the 1984 riots and sympathy for Beant Singh’s family. Harsimrat Kaur Badal of Shiromani Akali Dal was victorious on Bathinda seat.
This is the first time in Punjab since 1996 when elections are being considered prestigious for political parties. However, the leaders who have been fielded in the elections. He has been active in his areas for a long time.
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