SAD''s Gulzar Singh Ranike, BJP''s Anil Joshi''s defeats major upsets

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 11

Even as there was a clean sweep for the Congress in this border district, yet major upsets in the defeats of Akali stalwart SAD's Gulzar Singh Ranike, who lost to Congress' Tarsem Singh DC and the BJP's Anil Joshi, who lost to Sunil Dutti of the Congress, came out as surprise results.

Out of the 11 Assembly segments in Amritsar district, 10 segments were won by the Congress.

Attari is a reserved constituency, having a voter strength of over 1,71,586, from where senior SAD leader and Punjab minister Gulzar Singh Ranike (59) was seeking re-election. Beisdes, there were nine other candidates, AAP’s Jaswinder Singh Jahangir (39), BSP’s Sukhwantjit Kaur (51) and CPI's Gurdeep Singh (55).

In 2012, Ranike had defeated his Congress rival Tarsem Singh DC by 4,983 votes and in 2007 Rattan Singh of the Congress by 19,083 votes. However, this time his luck ran out.

The defeat of Cabinet minister Anil Joshi, who was seeking re-election from the Amritsar north segment on the basis of the whirlwind development carried out in his constituency was characterised as an "embarrassing" outcome. Despite development works in his constituency, allegations of corruption, bending of norms of the Improvement Trust for his favourites, and charges of corruption levelled by his opponents remained unanswered.

The Congress pitted an outsider Sunil Dutti, a native of Amritsar west constituency, against Joshi who got better of him.

Cricketer-turned-commentator-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu secured the maximum lead of 42,809 votes from the Amritsar east constituency. He polled 60,477 votes, the BJP’s Rajesh Honey got 17,668 and AAP’s Sarbjot Singh Dhanjal got 14,715 votes and Independent Mandeep Singh Manna had to be satisfied with 1,863 votes.

At Amritsar south constituency, Congress candidate Inderbir Singh Bolaria won by 22,658 votes. He polled 47,581 votes, Gurpratap Singh Tikka of SAD got 16,596 votes and AAP’s Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar 24,923 votes.

Senior Congress leader Raj Kumar Verka won by 22,658 votes. He polled 52,271 votes, BJP’s Rakesh Gill got 25,424 votes and AAP’s Balwinder Singh Sahota 24,731 votes.

Akali heavy weight Bikram Singh Majithia won by 22,884 votes from the Majithia Assembly constituency. He polled 65,803 votes. His nearest rival, Congress’s Sukhjinder Raj Singh Lalli Majithia, got 42,919 votes and AAP’s Himmat Singh Shergill secured 10,252 votes.

Harpratap Singh Ajnala won the Ajnala Assembly constituency by 18,713 votes, defeating his nearest rivals SAD’s Amarpal Singh Bonny and AAP’s Rajpreet Singh. Hapratap polled 61,378 votes, Bonny 42,665 votes and Rajpreet got 12,749 votes.

In the Rajasansi Assembly constituency, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria won by 5,727 votes. Sukhbinder polled 59,628 votes, SAD’s Veer Singh Lopoke got 53,901 votes and AAP’s Jagjot Singh Dhillon secred 12,213 votes.

In the Jandiala Assembly constituency, Sukhwinder Singh Danny Bundala of Congress won by 18,422 votes. He polled 53,042 votes, Dalbir Singh of SAD got 34,620 votes and Harbhajan Singh of AAP got 33,912 votes.

At Attari assembly constituency, Congress’ Tarsem Singh DC won by 10,202 votes. He polled 55335 votes, SAD’s Gulzar Singh Ranike got 45133 votes and AAP’s Jaswinder Singh Jahangir received 22558 votes.

At Baba Bakala assembly constituency, Santokh Singh of Congress won by 6587 votes. He polled 45965 votes, SAD’s Malkiat Singh got 38265 votes and AAP’s Dalbir Singh Tong 39378 votes.

At Amritsar Central Assembly constituency, senior Congress leader OP Soni won by 21116 votes. He polled 51242 votes, BJP’s Tarun Chugh got 30126 votes and AAP’s Dr Ajay Gupta secured 7171 votes.