Saffron party fails to open account in district

Tribune News Service

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Amritsar March 11

Although the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did well in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, it failed to emulate the same performance in Punjab, particularly in the holy city.

It seems that the after effects of demonetisation lead to the rout of the Saffron party. Despite hard efforts of senior BJP leaders, no candidate of the party, including influential minister Anil Joshi could win Vidhan Sabha seat in the city.

The BJP fielded four candidates, including Anil Joshi (North), Rajesh Honey (East), Rakesh Gill (West) and Tarun Chugh (Central), for the Assembly poll. Meanwhile, Rajinder Mohan Singh Chinna contested for the Lok Sabha bypoll. There was the BJP-SAD rule in the state for past 10 years. Leaders of both the parties laid claim to several development works during their tenure. Sunil Dutti of the Congress defeated Anil Joshi of the BJP by a 14,248 votes. Gurjeet Singh Aujla of the Congress subdued Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina of the BJP by the margin of 1,99,189 votes.

However, the BJP candidates did not admit publicly that residents had been questioning them over loss of their business and jobs after demonetisation.

The BJP had a good vote bank among the trader community in the city. The election result shows that businessmen had chosen the Congress instead of the BJP.