Stakes are high for the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Akalis and the Congress in the May 10 Jalandhar bypoll.
For the AAP, after the loss of the Sangrur assembly constituency, a win here would signal a vote of confidence in the leadership of chief minister Bhagwant Mann and the party, coming at a time when its top ministers in Delhi are behind bars. For the Akalis, this will be their first electoral battle after the death of patriarch and four-time former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.
The Jalandhar parliamentary constituency is seen as a Congress stronghold, with the party’s candidates winning the past five parliamentary elections without a break beginning 1999. In 2019, Santok Singh Chaudhary, the sitting MP, won for the second consecutive time.
In January this year, in the throes of the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, the 76-year-old collapsed while standing next to Rahul Gandhi and died of a heart attack. His death has necessitated the bypoll in the constituency. The party has fielded his wife Karamjit Singh Kaur from the constituency.
Unlike, the deeply divided house that it was during the 2022 Punjab assembly polls, the party is putting up a united front with all the warring sides — from Charanjeet Singh Channi to Navjot Singh Sidhu coming together to put their shoulders to the wheels of the campaign.
For the AAP, the Jalandhar by-election is a prestige battle, particularly after the humiliating defeat in the Sangrur assembly constituency bypoll following the murder of popular singer Sidhu Moosewala and the teething pains of first-time chief minister Mann. The party named former Congress leader Sushil Kumar Rinku as its Jalandhar candidate a day after he joined AAP. In fact, AAP candidate Sheetal Angural had defeated Rinku from the Jalandhar West assembly constituency in 2022.
Led by Mann, all the ministers of his cabinet have been campaigning here for a victory. AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has also thrown his weight behind the campaign with a blitzkrieg of roadshows over two days in almost all the assembly constituencies — Adampur, Jalandhar Cantt, Jalandhar North, Jalandhar Central, Jalandhar West and Phillaur.
Kejriwal has appealed for votes pitching the work done by the Mann government in the past one year — zero electricity bills, ‘mohalla’ clinics, and recruitment in government jobs — and promising industry, creation of jobs, and building of roads. Targeting the Congress, he said: “Since the past 60 years, you have voted for the Congress. Sixty years is not a small period of time. They have become so arrogant that their leaders have not come here to ask for votes. You have given them 60 years, give us one year. Next year, there will be elections again. If we don’t perform, don’t vote for us.”
While on the campaign trail, neither Mann nor Kejriwal indulged in any chest thumping over the arrest of fugitive ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief Amritpal Singh, particularly after the flak the government received following Singh slipping from the hands of Punjab Police earlier.
For the AAP, the Jalandhar bypoll could be the litmus test ahead of the 2024 general elections. It is important to remember that Punjab and Delhi together send 20 MPs to the Lok Sabha. For the AAP, a decent performance in the 2024 general elections is crucial for its oft-declared national ambitions.
Meanwhile, the Akali-BSP alliance has fielded Dr Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, sitting MLA from Banga, as their candidate. SAD president and former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal said electing Sukhi would be the ‘true homage’ to ‘Badal saab’.
“Electing SAD-BSP joint candidate Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi will be a true homage to Badal Sahab. Badal Sahab was worried divisive politics were spoiling state’s atmosphere in his last days. He felt Punjabis were being defamed by calling them separatists. We must defeat such forces,” he tweeted as the campaign came to a halt.
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