SAD, Congress win one seat each in Punjab by-polls - Aam Aadmi Party finished a distant third, loses security deposit on both seats

Tuesday, 26/08/2014

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=113459&boxid=62626&uid=&dat=2014-08-26

Chandigarh : Ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and main Opposition Congress won one seat each in the by-polls to Patiala (urban) and Talwandi Sabo Assembly seats while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) not only finished a poor third but also lost security deposit on both seats, on Monday.

Fighting a strong anti-incumbency factor, it was a gain for ruling SAD to wrest control over Talwandi Sabo seat from the Congress.

Both Patiala (urban) and Talwandi Sabo seats were with the Congress before they fell vacant.

With this, in the 117-member Punjab Assembly, ruling SAD’s strength has increased to 57 MLAs, while its ally BJP has 12, Congress moved to 45 members and independents three. Now, SAD requires just one more seat to reach the magic figure of 58, with which it would gain absolute majority on its own.

While former Congress MLA-turned-SAD nominee Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu won by an impressive margin of 46,642 votes, defeated Union Minister Preneet Kaur of Congress retained her former CM and Amritsar MP husband Captain Amarinder Singh’s vacated seat by defeating her nearest rival Bhagwan Dass Juneja by 23,282 votes.

Patiala seat had fallen vacant after Amarinder got elected to Lok Sabha from Amritsar, whereas Talwandi Sabo Assembly seat faced by-poll as sitting Congress MLA Sidhu deserted the party to join the ruling SAD. Talwandi Sabo Assembly segment falls under Bathinda Lok Sabha seat, represented by Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is a Minister in the Narendra Modi Cabinet.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir had campaigned vigorously in Talwandi Sabo leaving no stone unturned to ensure the victory of party candidate and “turncoat” Sidhu. Patiala’s royal family maintained its stronghold on Patiala seat, considered to be the strong bastion of the family.

After retaining Patiala seat, Amarinder Singh had emerged as a strong leader of the party in Punjab. He had limited his campaigning for his wife in the run-up to the by-polls to Patiala seat and had not even visited Talwandi Sabo once. Preneet, a three time MP was defeated by AAP’s Dharamvira Gandhi in the recently held Lok Sabha polls, by a margin of over 20,000 votes. While Amarinder preferred to campaign for his wife, his bête-noire and Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa confined his campaigning to Talwandi Sabo.

AAP, which had sprung a surprise in the parliamentary elections by winning four seats when it was completely rejected by the entire country, was summarily rejected by the electorate in the by-elections for both Assembly seats. On both seats, AAP even failed to put up a fight to the main contenders. The party and its candidates not only meekly surrendered but lost their security deposits too. This has put a big question mark on the political future of AAP in Punjab.