Big win for Henry, old guard Kohar sails through

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 11

Among the prominent candidates of the city who claimed big victories, Congress candidate Avtar Henry’s son Bawa Henry and SAD candidate and incumbent MLA Ajit Singh Kohar stood out.

Henry Junior won by the biggest margin in Jalandhar by getting 69,715 votes. His victory margin against incumbent BJP MLA KD Bhandari – who got 37,424 votes – was 32,291.

Henry Senior had emerged victorious from the Jalandhar North seat four times previously in 1992, 1997 and 2002. In the past two elections, BJP’s KD Bhandari was victorious.

Even as the district Congress unit saw much rebellion within on the Jalandhar North seat, with the seat first going to Tejinder Bittu and then to Rajkumar Gupta, in the end, Henry’s grand standing paid off after he threatened to go rogue and bat for the AAP. After a marathon meet (held in the presence of senior Congress leader who came in specially to Jalandhar to pacify him) in which Henry put up a massive show of strength with supporters rallying in favour of his ticket, the Congress chose his son Bawa Henry for the Jalandhar North seat.

Henry’s stand also came in the wake of the already simmering controversy of his dual citizenship charges due to which he was declared ineligible to contest the polls. While a sword also hung over his right to cast vote, his voting rights were restored a few days before the elections. Upon the restoration of his right to vote, his son had retorted that he would certainly win now that he had turned lucky with his father being able to vote for him.

In the end, with Henry Junior claiming the most thumping majority in the vote share across the nine Assembly constituencies (even though Pargat Singh from Jalandhar Cantt and Sushil Rinku from Jalandhar West also registered huge wins), Henry’s all gambles, as well as his party’s in choosing him, seem to have paid off.

Confident of a win, Henry supporters had also begun celebrating the veteran Congress leader’s son’s victory – outside the counting centre this morn\ing – since as early as 10 am.

Kohar claims Shahkot again

Notwithstanding the AAP’s digs at him at various rallies which the party held at Shahkot, despite a strong wave being projected in favour of AAP candidate Dr. Amarjit Singh Thind at Shahkot, incumbent Akali MLA and veteran leader from the Shiromani Akali Dal, Ajit Singh Kohar has once again emerged victorious on the Shahkot seat which he also won for the previous four elections.

He is among the two other incumbent Akali MLAs from Jalandhar – others being Pawan Tinu from Adampur and Gurpartap Singh Wadala from Nakodar – who retained their seats.

While a strong anti-incumbency factor was being projected against Kohar by the opposition, with the AAP almost nicknaming him “Dodeyan Vala Baba” across their rallies, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal had also held a rally in support of Shahkot candidate Dr Amarjit Thind, days ahead of Punjab going to the polls. The presence of Congress rebel and now AAP member CD Kamboj, who had been defeated by Kohar in the 2012 elections, was also seen at the AAP rally.

However, the electorate sided with the veteran Akali, who won by a margin of 4,903 votes defeating the Congress candidate Hardev Singh Ladi. While Ladi received 42,010 votes, Kohar got 46,913 votes and AAP candidate Dr Amarjit Singh Thind received 41,010 votes.

Interestingly, Kohar’s vote share has been marginally reduced, compared to his 2012 Assembly elections victory margin. While he won against CD Kamboj in 2012 by a margin of 5,435 votes in 2012, he had received 55,875 votes in 2012. CD Kamboj had got 50,440 votes.