Big jolt to Dal (B) in Punjab
By Gobind Thukral
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 6 — For the Parkash Singh Badal-led Akali Dal it was a big jolt in Punjab. The party, which along with its coalition partner the BJP had captured all the 13 seats there in 1998, lost all but three. Its most humiliating defeat was in the prestigious Faridkot seat. Here Mr Jagmeet Singh Brar, defeated a few times earlier, captured the seat with a thin margin of 5,164 votes.

The Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, had exhausted here all his sources and spent maximum time to canvass for his son, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, a Minister of State in the Vajpayee Government. Mr Brar, popularly known as Awaz-e-Punjab, has been an arch rival of the Badals in the Faridkot belt of the Malwa.

The Congress had won Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Ropar, Jalandhar, Phillaur, Faridkot, Patiala and Amritsar and the CPI the Bathinda seat. The Akali Dal (Badal) retained Tarn Taran and Ferozepore seats. Three seats of Faridkot, Patiala and Tarn Taran had the electronic voting system. The Akali Dal (Mann) candidate, Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, won by a margin of 86,334 votes defeating his rival, the Union Minister, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala.

The BJP, had contested three seats it held last time. It lost Hoshiarpur and Amritsar but won Gurdaspur by a margin of 1,399 votes. Vinod Khanna retained the seat. Mr Johra Singh Mann (Badal) defeated his rival Congress candidate Hans Raj Joshan by a margin of 14,853 votes.

In Hoshiarpur Mr Charanjit Singh Channi of the Congress won, defeating Mr Kamal Chaudhary of the BJP by a margin of 34,206 votes. In Ropar, Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo of the Congress defeated Mrs Satinder Kaur Dhaliwal of the SAD (B) with a margin of 77,354 votes. In Jalandhar Mrs Prabhjot Kaur of the SAD lost to Mr Balbir Singh of the Congress by 34,564 votes and in Phillaur Mrs Santosh Chaudhry of the Congress humbled Mr Satnam Kainth of the Bahujan Samaj Morcha with a margin of 26,578 votes.

In Ludhiana Mr Gurcharan Singh Galib of the Congress defeated Mr Amrik Singh Aliwal of the SAD by 1,05,246 votes. In Patiala Mrs Parneet Kaur of the Congress registered victory over the SAD candidate, Mr Surjit Singh Rakhra, with a margin of 78,194 votes. In Amritsar, Mr R.L. Bhatia of the Congress beat the BJP candidate, Mr Daya Singh Sodhi by 32,000 votes.

Looking at the performances, in Patiala, Mrs Parneet Kaur, wife of the Punjab Congress President, Capt Amarinder Singh, had a convincing win over the Badal Akali Dal rival by a good margin. Here Punjab Finance Minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, had worked hard for two months for Mr Surjit Singh Rakhra, Akali Dal (Badal) candidate but what he could gain was the second best position.

Mr Prem Singh Chandumajra of the Akali Dal (Tohra) trailed third with nearly a lakh votes.

In fact the former president of the SGPC, Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, who was ousted from the SGPC first and later thrown out of the party had joined hands with the BSP and contested seven seats. His aim was to take sweet revenge on Mr Badal and he succeeded in that. Interestingly, the BSP has feared could not damage the Congress. The Scheduled Caste base has firmly returned to the Congress, it seemed.

From Tarn Taran, Mr Tarlochan Singh Tur, the winner last time, maintained his hold despite the Tohra group eating away 32,000 votes. He defeated the Congress Party's Mr Gurinder Singh Kairon, son of late Punjab Chief Minister Partarp Singh Kairon, by a margin of over 70,000 votes.

Bathinda once again elected CPI leader, Mr Bhan Singh Bhaura, by a margin of 62172 votes over the Badal Akali Dal's sitting candidate, Mr Chetan Singh Samao. Here too, the Tohra Akali candidate played a crucial role. The Congress had left this seat for the CPI. Mr Bhaura was last time elected in 1971.

Sangrur offered another sad spectacle for the ruling Akali Dal from where its Union Minister for Food Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, was defeated by Mr Simranjit Singh Mann by a margin over 86,000 votes. Mr Ajit Singh Jawanda of the CPM was also defeated in Sangrur. Mr Barnala had won this seat by a margin of 82,000 votes defeating the Congress, Mr Mann and the CPM in 1998 election.

His election has been clearly sabotaged from within as Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, a Rajya Sabha member and General Secretary of the Akali Dal (Badal), had no love lost for him. Mr Mann also tried to win back a moderate section of the Sangrur constituency by making amends for his past Khalistani stand. He begged to be forgiven for that. It seemed to have worked in his favour.

The Congress support to the CPM was less enthusiastic.