Punjab bypoll battle to witness triangular contest on four Assembly seats

Chandigarh, Nov 19 (IANS) The AAP-ruled Punjab will go to the Assembly bypoll in a triangular contest for four seats on Wednesday with party’s convener Arvind Kejriwal and state Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann campaigning aggressively despite the party having an absolute majority in the House of 117. 

However, only state leaders of the main Opposition Congress, which had vacated three seats, participated in the high-pitched campaigning that ended on Monday evening.

The state ruling Shiromani Akal Dal (SAD) has neither fielded any candidate nor extended support to any party after its chief Sukhbir Badal was declared ‘tankhaiya’ (person guilty of religious misconduct) by the Akal Takht for “mistakes” committed by his party and the government-run by it from 2007 to 2017.

The four Assembly segments are Gidderbaha, Barnala, Dera Baba Nanak and Chabbewal (Scheduled Caste reserved).

A total of 45 candidates, including three women, are in the fray for the bypolls in which 6.96 lakh voters will exercise their franchise at 831 polling stations, Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C. said.

He said the polling would be held from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., with the counting of votes on November 23. He appealed to the voters to exercise their right to vote without any fear or inducement.

The four Assembly seats -- three represented by the Congress and one by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) -- fell vacant after MLAs from these constituencies were elected to this year’s Lok Sabha polls.

Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, the Congress legislator from the politically significant seat Gidderbaha, was elected from the Ludhiana Parliamentary seat, while Raj Kumar Chabbewal, a Congress MLA who later switched loyalties to AAP, became MP from the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat.

Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who was a Congress legislator from the Dera Baba Nanak seat, got elected from the Gurdaspur parliamentary seat, while Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, the AAP legislator from Barnala, was elected as MP from the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat.

The Congress fielded Warring's wife Amrita Warring from Gidderbaha, while Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa's wife Jatinder Kaur from Dera Baba Nanak, Ranjit Kumar from Chabbewal and Kuldeep Singh Dhillon from Barnala.

The fight in Gidderbaha is triangular with BJP candidate Manpreet Singh Badal, a five-time lawmaker and two-time finance minister, posing a challenge to Akali Dal’s turncoat and AAP’s Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon and Congress’ Amrita Warring. The Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) has fielded Sukhraj Singh.

Former Shiromani Akali Dal leader from Gidderbaha, Dhillon, once a close aide of Sukhbir Badal, switched loyalties in August, saying his decision to join the ruling party is in the larger interest of the constituency that is “struggling for development”.

This seat in Muktsar district was once considered a stronghold of the Akalis, with Parkash Singh Badal representing it for five consecutive terms -- 1969, 1972, 1977, 1980 and 1985, before he handed over the political baton to his nephew Manpreet Badal in 1995.

In Dera Baba Nanak, besides Congress’ candidate Jatinder Kaur, AAP’s nominee in the fray is Gurdeep Singh Randhawa and BJP’s Ravikaran Singh Kahlon.

From Chabbewal, AAP candidate Ishank Kumar, son of AAP MP Raj Kumar Chabbewal, has been pitted against Congress’ Ranjit Kumar and BJP’s Sohan Singh Thandal, another Akali Dal turncoat who had won this seat in the 2012 Assembly elections but lost in 2017 and 2022.

Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, and former Minister Vijay Inder Singla, among others, canvassed extensively for the Congress candidates, while for the BJP, Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu, party's national general secretary Tarun Chugh, former Union Minister Anurag Thakur and former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani campaigned.

The Chief Electoral Officer said 6,481 Punjab Police personnel and officials along with 17 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have been deployed to ensure peaceful elections.

Additionally, 3,868 polling staff have been assigned duties for the smooth management of the polling process.

The legislative Assembly has a strength of 117 members, of which the ruling party AAP has 90 members, while the Opposition Congress has 13 seats, SAD three seats, BJP two, BSP one, and Independent candidates three.

In 2022, the AAP formed the government after winning 92 seats, with Bhagwant Mann becoming the Chief Minister.

--IANS

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