Independent candidates polled 25,404 votes

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 23

The Independent candidates from the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency together polled 25,404 votes as 14 Independent candidates were in the fray.

It is pertinent to mention here that a majority of the Independent candidates did not campaign personally or use any kind of mediapersons as part of canvassing in the constituency at all and still managed to get votes.

Independent candidates — Amrik Singh polled 1,676 votes, Sandeep Kumar polled 2,731 votes, Surjeet Singh polled 5,872 votes, Harpal Singh polled 4,627, Kartar Singh polled 2,978 votes, Gurcharan Singh polled 1,485 votes, Gurmail Singh polled 804 votes, Teja Singh polled 1,448 votes, Nahar Singh polled 960 votes, Bhola Singh Sahota got 884 votes, Manjit Kaur got 1,072 votes, Ranveer Singh Rana got 913 votes, Prof Lakhbir Singh polled 1,154 votes and Veerpal Kaur got 2,078 votes.

AAP candidate Prof Baljinder Kaur polled 1,34,398 votes. The wave of the Aam Aadmi Party swept the voters in Bathinda district during 2017, but this time there was no wave in this election but despite this she was able to get a large number of votes in the constituency.

Apart from them, Punjab Ekta Party (PEP) candidate Sukhpal Singh Khaira polled 38,199 votes. It is worth mentioning that he aggressive run his campaign and he himself toured around 400 villages in the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat and raised various issues pertaining to contaminated waters, toll plaza, poor basic facilities, etc. Apart from him, even his wife Jatinder Khaira, son Mehtab Khaira, daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law also campaigned for him.

Even Swaran Singh Dhaliwal of Socialist Unity Centre of India polled 5,106 votes, Sukhchain Singh Bhargav of Hindustan Shakti Sena polled 1,794 votes, Gursewak Singh of SAD Amritsar polled 3,820 votes, Gurmeet Singh Insa of Punjab Labour Party polled 692 votes, Dr Jagsir Singh of Bahujan Mukti Party polled 1,066 votes, Retd Subedar Major Jagdev Singh of Bharatiya Lok Seva Dal polled 1,765 votes, Baljinder Kumar of Socialist Party polled 1,406 votes, Bhagwant Singh Samaon of CPI (ML) polled 5,381 votes and Bhupinder Singh of Samaj Adhikar Kalyan Party polled 1,302 votes.

Besides, the Independent candidates will lose the security deposit that they had submitted during the time of filing their nominations. All the candidates deposited Rs 25,000 as security deposit. As per the rules of the Election Commission of India, to save the security deposit from being forfeited, a candidate should get at least one/sixth of the total votes cast. Apart from Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and Prof Baljinder Kaur, the security deposits of not only 14 Independent candidates, but also the 10 candidates belonging to other parties will now lose their security deposits.