Stage set for high-stakes Jalandhar West bypoll as 1.71 lakh electors to vote today
The bypoll was necessitated after Sheetal Angural, who is now fighting as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, had resigned as an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
As many as 1.71 lakh voters will decide the fate of 15 candidates in fray for the Jalandhar West assembly seat, the polling for which will take place today. The results will be declared on July 13.
The bypoll was necessitated after Sheetal Angural, who is now fighting as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, had resigned as an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The AAP has fielded Mohinder Bhagat while the Congress has put its faith in Surinder Kaur and Shiromani Akali Dal is going with Surjit Kaur.
The district administration has set up 181 polling stations, of which 51 are hyper-sensitive for which elaborate security arrangements have been made. As many as 1,055 security personnel, including 700 Punjab police personnel and three companies of Border Security Force (BSF), have been deployed to ensure law-and-order in the segment.
After complaints from Congress and BJP workers that outsiders, allegedly owing allegiance to AAP, were roaming around the constituency, in violation of the model code of conduct, the administration issued orders to outsiders to leave the constituency by Monday evening. Former CM and Jalandhar MP Charanjit Singh Channi, PPCC president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and BJP’s Angural had also gone live on social media and caught miscreants allegedly distributing clothes, liquor and ration to woo voters.
Fearing poll rigging, Warring and leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa have decided to camp at Jalandhar police commissionerate headquarters to ensure free and fair elections.
Litmus test for Punjab CM after Lok Sabha poll debacle
The Jalandhar West bypoll is set to be a litmus test for the Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann especially after the Lok Sabha election debacle, where AAP managed to win only three out of 13 seats.
Taking it as a prestige issue, in wake of Angural’s “betrayal”, CM Mann has been leading from the front to ensure AAP’s victory in the elections. He not only spearheaded Mohinder Bhagat’s campaign but also acted as his poll manager and strategist.
Congress, on the other hand, is looking for an icing on the cake after its candidate former CM Charanjit Singh Channi won the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat with a comfortable margin. However, it won’t be easy going for the Congress as Channi, even though Channi won the Lok Sabha seat by a whopping margin of 1.75 lakh votes, he could manage a lead of only 1,557 votes in the Jalandhar West segment.
For BJP’s Angural, a win here will justify his decision to snap ties with the AAP and join the saffron party before the Parliamentary elections. Moreover, the BJP is eyeing to retain its olds bastion from where its senior leader Chunni Lal Bhagat won the assembly elections thrice -- 1997, 2007 and 2012.
The SAD, withdrew its support to its official candidate Surjit Kaur, after her flip-flop – joining the AAP and then returning to SAD. The Akali Dal is likely to be a mere spectator in these elections. The SAD has extended its support to BSP candidate Bhinder Singh Lakha but no senior Akali leader came openly to support Lakha.
In the last five elections, the Congress has won this seat twice -- in 2002 and 2017 -- while the BJP bagged it in 2007 and 2012. AAP secured victory in 2022 in which its then candidate Angural got the better of Congress’ Rinku by 4,253 votes.
In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, the voting percentage of the Congress had gone up to 39.43% from 20.36% in the 2022 assembly polls and BJP’s from 19.51% in 2022 to 21.64% in parliamentary elections.
The vote percentage of the ruling AAP dropped to 21.74% from 22.84% in assembly polls.
FIR registered after liquor recovered from SUV
The Jalandhar police commissionerate registered an FIR against unidentified person(s) after BJP nominee Sheetal Angural intercepted an SUV bearing Patiala registration number and recovered liquor and ladies’ suits from it. Angural alleged that AAP workers from Patiala were distributing liquor and other products to woo voters. Police have impounded the vehicle after its occupants managed to flee. The case has been registered under sections of the Excise Act and Section 223 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of Bharatiya Nayaya Sanhita (BNS).
Earlier, BJP workers had alleged that they had recovered AAP flags in a vehicle being brought into Jalandhar West constituency from outside.