It’s a split verdict

CHANDIGARH: The first-timer Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), reckoned by many as a rank outsider, has scripted history by winning the Kharar Assembly seat, which had been bagged either by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) or the Congress for the past five decades, barring once when in 1972 CPI’s Shamsher Singh Josh made it to the state Assembly.

AAP candidate Kanwar Sandhu

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 11

The first-timer Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), reckoned by many as a rank outsider, has scripted history by winning the Kharar Assembly seat, which had been bagged either by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) or the Congress for the past five decades, barring once when in 1972 CPI’s Shamsher Singh Josh made it to the state Assembly.

However, the other two Vidhan Sabha segments in Mohali district – Mohali and Dera Bassi — opted for retaining their sitting legislators – Balbir Singh Sidhu of the Congress and NK Sharma of the SAD. Sidhu made a hat-trick of sorts, having won the seat in 2012 from Mohali and 2007 from Kharar. Earlier, in 2002 and 1997, Sidhu had finished third as the Congress and Independent candidate from Kharar. Sharma had won his maiden election in 2012. With all three main political parties – the Congress, the SAD and AAP – winning one seat each in Mohali district, the newly elected MLAs are a liquor baron from Mohali, a journalist from Kharar, and a realtor from Dera Bassi.

In Kharar, both the winning party as well as its candidate Kanwar Sandhu, are newcomers. Sandhu is a 61-year-old veteran journalist, who had served as editor of a couple of leading English dailies in Chandigarh before he decided to throw his hat into the political ring. He defeated his nearest rival and sitting Congress MLA Jagmohan Singh Kang by a margin of 2,012 votes. Kang was a three-time legislator. Before winning from Kharar in 2012, Kang had represented Morinda in 2002 and 1992. He faced a drubbing in 1997 and 2007. Sandhu polled 54,171 votes while Kang got 52,159 votes.

SAD’s newcomer leading realtor Ranjit Singh Gill finished third by getting 46,807 votes. The remaining seven candidates, including that of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), lost their security deposits by failing to poll 10 per cent of the total votes polled. Interestingly, 1,059 voters opted for NOTA, which was higher than the vote count of six candidates.

In Mohali, Sidhu recorded a winning margin of 27,873 votes by polling 66,844 votes. AAP’s first-timer agriculturist Narinder Singh Shergill remained the runner-up with 38,971 votes while former Mohali Deputy Commissioner Capt (retd) Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu, who is the son-in-law of veteran Akali Rajya Sabha member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, finished third with 30,031 votes. An IAS officer, Capt Sidhu had left the civil service to contest the elections. As in Kharar, Mohali’s other 12 candidates also lost their security deposits and remained way behind NOTA, which was opted for by 1,139 electors.

In Dera Bassi, Sharma, who was a Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) in the outgoing Badal regime and considered close to SAD president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, defeated his nearest rival Deepinder Singh Dhillon of the Congress by a margin of 1,921 votes.

Sharma polled 70,792 votes while Dhillon got 68,871 votes. AAP’s first-timer Sarabjit Kaur, widow of former Punjab minister and veteran Akali leader Capt Kanwaljit Singh, polled only 33,150 votes to finish third. Capt Kanwaljit had represented Banur (which was replaced by Dera Bassi in 2012) for a maximum of four times, including a hat-trick. He was first elected from Banur in 1985 and lost in 1992 but thereafter he scored a hat-trick of victories in 1997, 2002 and 2007 before he died in a road mishap in Kharar in March 2009. His son Jasjit Singh Bunny won the 2009 byelection from Banur caused by Capt’s death.

In Dera Bassi, NOTA count of 1,345 was way ahead of the votes polled by the rest of the six candidates, whose security deposits were forfeited.

My victory is a tribute to my son Dr Karan, who left us recently. Karan had specially come from Canada to participate in the election campaign. He had really worked very hard. – Kanwar Sandhu (AAP), winner from kharar

My victory shows Mohali people’s love for me. They have again put their faith in me, for the third time. Now, we are going to form the government and it’s time to give back in a big way. – Balbir Singh Sidhu (Cong), winner from mohali

I am happy to have won the seat for the second consecutive time. My win proves that people pinned their hopes on development and not political gimmicks. – NK Sharma (SAD), winner from dera bassi

KHARAR

Kanwar Sandhu