As bypoll nears, Jalandhar abuzz with frantic door-to-door campaigns, meets
Senior leaders of AAP, Congress have been camping in the Jalandhar West assembly constituency. BJP stars are set to arrive soon.
With barely a week left for campaigning for the Jalandhar West assembly bypoll, the political parties have intensified the electioneering to woo the voters. Top leaders of the parties are camping in the city, making their poll strategies and overseeing the campaigns.
As chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann recently shifted to his rented accommodation in Jalandhar, the bypoll appears to be a prestige battle for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as its former MLA from the constituency Sheetal Angural quit in March, a day after joining the BJP, thus necessitating the fresh bypoll. His resignation was accepted by Punjab assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan on May 30. Angural has been fielded by the BJP.
Almost every party has been going door to door besides organising small public street meetings.
Since shifting to Jalandhar, CM Mann has been a key poll manager and strategist for AAP candidate Mohinder Bhagat. Mann has held multiple meetings with employees’ unions, which have been protesting against the state government. One of the senior leaders said the CM has been gathered feedback from MLAs, MPs and chairpersons of different departments on a daily basis regarding the campaigning and mood of the public.
“There are instructions from top leaders to highlight the development works done by the state government in the past two and a half years. We want to win the elections at any cost,” a leader, wishing not to be named, said.
For the Congress, though Charanjit Singh Channi defeated BJP’s Sushil Kumar Rinku in Jalandhar in the Lok Sabha elections on June 4 by an impressive margin of 1.75 lakh votes, the party had got a meagre lead of 1,557 votes over his rival in the Jalandhar West assembly segment. This has worried the party.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, leader of opposition in the state assembly Partap Singh Bajwa and Charanjit Singh Channi are holding the fort for party candidate Surinder Kaur, a five-time municipal councillor.
Accompanied by workers, the Congress incumbent and former MLAs and MPs are campaigning door to door in this reserved constituency. A special war room has been created by the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee here to monitor the electioneering activities.
For BJP candidate Sheetal Angural, senior leaders Gajendra Shekhawat, Anurag Thakur, Vijay Rupani, Ravneet Bittu and former Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur are going to join the party’s campaign soon. BJP state president Sunil Jakhar is the key poll strategist for the party.
Challenges galore for the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate, Surjit Kaur, as the party, after fielding her, withdrew support and extended support to BSP candidate Bhinder Singh Lakha. Her campaign is being managed by the rebel group of SAD, led by Jagir Kaur and former MLA Gurpartap Singh Wadala. On the other hand, no senior Akali leader has openly come for Lakha’s support.
The electioneering will end on July 8, polling will be held on July 10 and results will be out on July 13.