Mohali, Kharar voters played crucial role in Tewari’s victory

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, May 23

Voters of Mohali district’s two segments — Kharar and Mohali — played major role in the win of Congress candidate Manish Tewari from the Anandpur Sahib constituency.

Tewari, who fetched a total of 4,28,045 votes to emerge victorious, outclassed his nearest rival BJP-SAD combine candidate Prem Singh Chandumajra by a margin of 46,884 votes. Interestingly, of the total margin, the difference of 19,857 votes came from Mohali and Kharar segments only.

Of the total 1,35,426 votes polled in the Mohali segment, Tewari got 63,380 votes, whereas 50,728 people voted in the favour of Chandumajra, who, in the 2014 general elections, had trailed Congress stalwart Ambika Soni at the same seat by a margin of 23,697 votes. At that time, Chandumajra had got 3,47,394 votes, while Ambika Soni had finished with 3,23,697 votes.

Similarly in the Kharar segment, more voters came in favour of Tewari by polling 63,300 votes for him, while Chandumajra got 56,095 votes from the segment. A total of 1,47,067 votes were polled in the Kharar segment this time.

After the announcement of results, visibly upset Chandumajra said he respected the people’s mandate. When asked about a major difference of votes in Mohali district’s two segments, he said the number of votes in his favour from both segments had increased.

“The number has increased by nearly 21,000 votes here. It seems that the AAP and the Congress joined hands here, which resulted in the victory of Tewari,” said Chandumajra, who has been putting up in Mohali.

BJP workers celebrate party’s nationwide win

Mohali: BJP workers in the city celebrated their party’s nationwide win despite BJP-SAD candidate Prem Singh Chandumajra’s losing to Manish Tewari here. The party workers danced to drum beats and held a “vijay yatra” that begun from Phase 5. They also burst crackers amid slogans of “Modi, Modi” in the city. Ladoos were distributed across the city. City BJP councillor Arun Sharma said: “We are sad that Chandumajra lost the elections. But we are happy at the same time as a “mazboot sarkar” is coming back to power with a majority.” Asked about the outcome, the BJP leader said: “We were confident that the NDA will form the government. Modi’s charisma and magic are intact”. Around 150-200 supporters and party workers took part in the victory roadshow, he said. 

AAP candidate fails to get good response

AAP candidate Narinder Singh Shergill, who is also a resident of Kharar, could not get good response from the voters of both segments of his area. In the Mohali segment, Shergill got mere 8,359 votes, while from the Kharar segment he got 10,272 votes.