Rana Gurjit defied pull for Amritpal to get more votes in favour of Zira

Tarn Taran, June 6

The election from Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha constituency was interesting from many angles. It was only Rana Gurjit Singh, Congress MLA from Kapurthala, who could manage more votes in favour of his party candidate Kulbir Singh Zira than votes polled in favour of ‘Waris Punjab De’ leader Amritpal Singh in the nine assembly segments falling under Khadoor Sahib constituency. Amritpal Singh, who was an independent candidate, got the biggest margin in Punjab.

Amritpal Singh got 21,548 votes from Kapurthala assembly segment while the Congress party candidate Kulbir Singh Zira got 28,605 votes. It happened at a time when AAP candidate Laljit Singh Bhulllar could not get more votes from his own assembly segment, Patti, nor could his colleague and Punjab minister Harbhajan Singh ETO manage more votes from his segment Jandiala Guru in favour of the AAP candidate than Amritpal Singh.

However, Rana Gurjit Singh failed to implement his experiment in his neighbouring constituency Sultanpur Lodhi which is being represented by his son Rana Inder Partap Singh as an independent MLA. Rana Inder Partap Singh campaigned for the Congress party candidate from his constituency.

Amritpal Singh got lead from the other assembly segments like Tarn Taran, Khadoor Sahib, Khemkaran, Zira and Baba Bakala as compared to the other candidates.

A rare incident occurred in the area with the suspension of Adesh Partap Singh Kairon from SAD which proved costly as party candidate Virsa Singh Valtoha could get only 3,554 votes from the Patti segment of the total 1,26,193 votes polled, there being no substitute leader to campaign for Valtoha. The party candidate got 21,866 votes from his own Khemkaran assembly segment as compared to 46,600 votes polled for Amritpal Singh.