Preneet Kaur trounces SAD nominee in Patiala Urban
Tuesday, 26/08/2014
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=113466&boxid=57760&uid=&dat=2014-08-26
PATIALA: Preneet Kaur of the Congress Party here on Monday won the Patiala Urban assembly bye-election by a massive margin of 23,282 votes against Bhagwan Dass Juneja of the ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance. Preneet Kaur polled 52967 votes against 29685 votes polled by Bhagwan Dass Juneja while the Aam Aadmi Party candidate Harjit Singh Adaltiwala had to be content with 5724 finishing a poor third.
Preneet Kaur got a lead of about 1100 votes in the first round itself and the lead continued to increase in each of the total 14 rounds. The counting which started at 8 in the morning was over by about 11 am when Preneet Kaur was declared elected.
There was somber atmosphere in the city following the demise of Gurpal Juneja, the eldest son of the SAD-BJP alliance candidate Bhagwan Dass Juneja who died of a heart attack late on Sunday night.
Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh, who is currently abroad, and his wife Preneet Kaur thanked the people of Patiala for the party’s victory in the bye-election held on August 21. However, there were no victory celebrations as a mark of respect over the untimely demise of Juneja’s son, Gurpal Juneja, Preneet Kaur also attended the cremation of Gurpal.
Capt Amarinder Singh in his message to the people said he acknowledged their love, affection, faith and trust by voting for the Congress against all odds and the pressure the Akalis tried to put. He said the Patiala result will mark the beginning of the end for the Akalis. He said they (the Akalis) won Talwandi Sabo for the reasons best known to everybody like misuse of government machinery and brute use of power. He said they tried to do the same thing here also but were not allowed to do so by the Congress workers. Besides, he added police also performed a neutral role here. He pointed out this was the second bye-election any opposition party had won in Punjab in the last 15 years. He said last time also the Congress, while being in opposition had won the Adampur bye-election in 1999, which had set the tone for 2002 assembly elections which the party won. “History is repeating itself,” he remarked.
The victory of Preneet Kaur is attributed to the aggressive campaign by Capt Amarinder Singh who camped in Patiala for almost two weeks and attended scores of election meetings. His presence in the town with a host of senior Congress leaders galvanised the election campaign of Preneet Kaur. Bharatinder Singh Chahal, former media advisor to Capt Amarinder Singh, along with other local Congress leaders presented bouquets to Preneet Kaur after the results were declared.
Meanwhile, in an informal interaction with media persons after the results, Preneet Kaur when asked whether she felt she would have won had Capt Amarinder Singh been able to campaign in parliamentary elections also, as he could not because of himself contesting from Amritsar, she said she very much felt that she would have won had he been able to campaign here that time also like he campaigned this time.
She said that it was the victory of the people of Patiala, who had once again reaffirmed their faith and confidence in her and her family. She said the victory was the result of the collective hardwork of all the leaders and workers who worked round the clock during the campaign. To another question, the former union minister said this election had also exposed the myths about Aam Aadmi Party which had lost its deposit both in Patiala and Talwandi Sabo.
People had understood and realised that AAP had neither any agenda nor any programme except spreading anarchy, she said while adding that is why people had rejected them outrightly. Asserting that this election was an indicator of the things to come in two years from now in 2017, she pointed out, while Akalis are losing faith of people, irrespective of the Talwandi Sabo result as everybody knows what they did there, AAP has also been virtually decimated.
