Sweeps Majha

PK Jaiswar/Ravi Dhaliwal & Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 11

The Congress almost clean-sweeped Majha winning 22 of the 25 seats whereas AAP could not show much impact despite party convener Arvind Kejriwal holding several roadshows in the region and making the fight against Akali stalwart Bikram Singh Majithia from Majitha a prestige battle.

The Congress bagged 10 seats in Amritsar district, six in Gurdaspur, four in Tarn Taran and two in Pathankot. The SAD won Majitha and Batala (Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal) and the BJP Sujanpur (Dinesh Singh Babbu).

Three ministers, SAD’s Gulzar Singh Ranike (Attari) and Adaish Partap Kairon (Patti) and BJP’s Anil Joshi (Amritsar-North) tasted defeat. The only consolation for the SAD perhaps was the comprehensive win of Majithia, who defeated Congress’ Sukhjinder Singh Lalli Majithia by 22,884 votes. Lodhinangal outclassed three-time Congress MLA Ashwani Sekhri and AAP state convener Gurpreet Singh Waraich, winning by a wafer thin margin of 482 votes.

Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who contested on the Congress ticket from Amritsar-East, defeated BJP’s Rajesh Honey by 42,661 votes.

Four-time Congress MLA Om Parkash Soni (51,242 votes) won for the fifth consecutive term by defeating BJP’s national executive member Tarun Chugh by 21,105 votes.

Two-time Congress MLA Aruna Chowdhury trounced BJP’s BD Dhuppar from Dinanagar by nearly 32,000 votes while youth leader Barindermeet Singh Pahra (Congress) thrashed two-time Akali MLA GS Babbehali in Gurdaspur by 28,000 votes. The duo stunned even the most seasoned of psephologists with their emphatic wins.

On the flip side, seasoned campaigners Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa just about managed to scrap through their respective seats. While Randhawa beat his former SAD Cabinet Minister SS Langah by 1,400 votes, Tripat crossed the line by beating former Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon by barely 1,900 votes.

In Qadian, the home borough of Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa, his younger brother Fateh Jang Singh Bajwa downed SAD stalwart and former Cabinet Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan by nearly 9,000 votes.

The SAD got its biggest jolt in Tarn Taran district, considered a Panthic area, where Patti candidate Adaish Partap Kairon lost to Harminder Singh Gill (Congress) by 8,345 votes. In Tarn Taran constituency, three-time winner and SAD CPS Harmeet Singh Sandhu lost to Dr Dharambir Agnihotri (Congress) by 14,599 votes.

Even SAD’s firebrand leader Virsa Singh Valtoha lost to Congress’ Sukhpal Singh Bhullar by 19,602 votes. SAD stalwart Ranjit Singh Brahmpura’s son-in-law Ravinder Singh Brahmpura lost to Ramanjit Singh Sikki (Congress) by 17,055 votes.

Former Reliance vice-president Amit Vij turned out to be the proverbial ‘dark horse’ as he stunned sitting BJP MLA and former Punjab unit president Ashwani Sharma by 11,000 votes to win the prestigious Pathankot City seat.

In the mining rich belt of Bhoa, BJP’s Seema Kumari, seeking a second term, was soundly beaten by first-timer Joginder Pal Singh (Congress) by 27,000 votes.