Amritsar LS byelection to witness all-Jat Sikh battle

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 20

The February 4 Lok Sabha bypoll here will be a contest among Jat Sikh candidates.

The BJP has fielded former state unit vice-president Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, while the Congress has picked district rural unit chief Gurjeet Singh Aujla.

The Aam Aadmi Party’s choice is Upkar Singh Sandhu, former SAD (Urban) chief who switched over to the Congress and then joined the AAP recently.

The Aapna Punjab Party (APP) has fielded Gurinder Singh Bajwa, a dissident AAP leader and former district head.

The past four elections have seen Sikh candidates defeating Hindu nominees. Sikhs account for around 65 per cent of the population.

In 2004, BJP’s Navjot Singh Sidhu upset Congress stalwart Raghunandan Lal Bhatia by a huge margin of about 1 lakh votes.

In the 2007 bypoll, he defeated Congress candidate Surinder Singla by a margin of around 80,000 votes.

In the 2009 polls, he beat Congress’ OP Soni by just 6,000 votes.

In 2014, the BJP replaced Sidhu with Arun Jaitley, who lost to PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh, a Jat Sikh, by around 90,000 votes.

The seat has been a Congress bastion, with Bhatia winning six times (1972, 1980, 1985, 1992, 1996 and 1999).