CONG RETAINS PATIALA, TALWANDI SABO FALLS TO SAD Tuesday, 26 August 2014 | Monika Malik | Chandigarh Maharani of Patiala is all set for the coronation, once again. Thrown out of power by the people of her territory during the parliamentary polls some three months back, Maharani Preneet Kaur on Monday reversed her fortunes by capturing the Assembly seat in favour of the Congress. But her party was not so lucky in Talwandi Sabo, where it suffered a defeat at the hands of rival Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The ruling alliance managed to capture the Talwandi Sabo seat, considered as Congress citadel, after 1985 — almost three decades. In the State’s third by-election after 2012 State Assembly polls, both the Congress and Akali Dal scored one-one, while the Aam Aadmi Party candidates went on to lose their security deposits. Earlier, the SAD-BJP candidates won the two bypolls — Moga and Dasuya. With this, the ruling SAD’s strength in the 117-member Punjab Assembly has gone up to 56 — just one short of the magical figure of majority. Its ally, BJP has 12 MLAs. The number of Congress’ legislators has now reached 45. Remaining three seats were represented by the independents. Both Patiala (urban) and Talwandi Sabo seats were with the Congress before they fell vacant. Patiala seat fell vacant after sitting Congress MLA and former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh was elected Member Parliament from Amritsar in 2014 polls, while by-elections were necessitated in Talwandi Sabo Assembly constituency after sitting Congress MLA Jeet Mohinder Sidhu shifted his loyalties towards SAD after resigning from the Punjab Assembly and Congress. Maintaining its supremacy in the royal city of Patiala, the Congress converted its recent defeat into victory catapulting three-time Patiala MP back to power after she lost the parliamentary polls from the constituency to cardiologist-turned-politician Dr Dharamvira Gandhi from AAP. Former Union Minister Preneet won by defeating her nearest rival Bhagwan Dass Juneja of SAD by a margin of 23,282 votes. Out of total 89,570 votes polled, Preneet bagged 52,967 votes, while Juneja got 29,685 and AAP’s Harjeet Singh Adaltiwala received 5,724 votes. Soon after the declaration of results, Preneet said: “I will fight for the development of Patiala in the assembly and will make strategy to form Congress government in the state in next assembly elections.” To hold the Patiala fort — known as Congress stronghold, SAD’s strategy to field a ‘Hindu’ candidate to cash in on around 60 per cent Hindu votes in the constituency has also proved futile. The royal city has been electing former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh as its MLA and his wife Preneet Kaur as its MP since decades. A look at the past elections show that out of 14 elections since 1957, Congress has won eight times with Capt Amarinder winning 2012 assembly polls from Patiala for the third consecutive time. SAD managed to bag the seat only for three times only before Capt Amarinder entered the political turf from Patiala assembly segment. However, SAD’s attempt to take charge of Talwandi Sabo, also considered to be Congress citadel, gave fruitful results only after getting rival’s winning soldier, Jeet Mohinder Sidhu, on its side. Before this, the SAD won the seat in 1985, 29 years before, when Capt Amarinder Singh won the seat as Akali candidate by 10285 votes defeating Congress’ Avtar Singh. Sidhu won the seat by a huge margin of 46,642 votes defeating his nearest rival and Congress candidate Harminder Singh Jassi. AAP’s candidate Prof Baljinder Kaur secured 13,899 votes, while AAP rebel and independent candidate Balkar Singh Sidhu got 6,305 votes. Sidhu’s win did not come easy for the SAD. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal along with his son Sukhbir Badal and daughter-in-law Harsimrat Kaur had campaigned vigorously in Talwandi Sabo leaving no stone unturned to ensure the victory of party candidate and “turncoat” Sidhu. The win has turned out to be a big gain for the ruling SAD which fought a strong anti-incumbency factor to wrest control over Talwandi Sabo seat from the Congress. Besides a fight between political parties, Sidhu has established his supremacy over his traditional rival Jassi. The two have been pitted against each other earlier and defeated each other once. Jassi was first elected MLA from Talwandi Sabo constituency in 1992, and in 1997 assembly polls, he defeated Sidhu, who had contested as SAD candidate by a margin of 3,193 votes. In 2002 assembly polls, Sidhu contested as an independent after SAD denied him ticket, and went on to beat Jassi, a Congress candidate, by a thin margin of 237 votes. Sidhu then joined the Congress, when it came to power in the State in 2002, that made Jassi to shift his base to Bathinda (urban) Assembly segment. WIN MAY LEAD MORE CONGRESS MLAs TOWARDS SAD With Sidhu being the second Congress MLA to leave the party and reelected after Moga MLA Joginder Pal Jain, the SAD may attract more and more sitting MLAs to its fold. Congress has been in the opposition in the state since past seven years now, the SAD’s move may woo its sitting legislators towards the power. ROLE REVERSAL FOR PATIALA ROYAL COUPLE Congress win in Patiala has led to a role-reversal for the Royal Couple with Capt Amarinder in the Parliament and his wife Preneet in the state politics. Preneet will now be representing Patiala urban seat, which was earlier represented by his husband. Her husband will remain active at the national level after his election as Amritsar MP. Moreover, Capt Amarinder’s appointment as deputy leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha has kept him busy with the party’s national politics. STRENGTHENING CAPT’s POSITION After retaining Patiala seat, Capt Amarinder has 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. While Capt Amarinder preferred to campaign for his wife, his bete noire and Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa confined his campaigning to Talwandi Sabo. While the former Chief Minister won the parliamentary polls, and make his wife won Patiala by poll strengthening his position in the party, Bajwa’s failure to retain his Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat and party’s loss at Talwandi Sabo may go against him.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 10:22:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015