Congress heats up Lok Sabha bypoll politics in Jalandhar

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, March 14

After the announcement of Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary’s name as the Congress candidate for the forthcoming Jalandhar parliamentary bypoll, the politics for the seat has heated up.

Karamjit Chaudhary is the wife of the two-time Jalandhar MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh, whose demise during the recent Bharat Jodo Yatra, necessitated the Lok Sabha bypoll in Jalandhar. With the Congress party set to play an emotional card, all other parties, including the Aam Aadmi Party, BJP and SAD-BSP have come under pressure to rope in such a candidate through whom they would be able to counter such a move.

The Congress leaders said since the names of other leaders of the party were cropping up each day, the need for an early announcement was being felt. Leader of Opposition Partap Bajwa said, “Since our party was to give the ticket to Karamjit Chaudhary for the seat of her late husband, we would certainly have been the first to make the announcement. There was no point in delaying it any further. It will certainly help us plan our campaign better.”

Ex-MP MS Kaypee and ex-MLA Sushil Rinku had already put claims even as the name of ex-CM Charanjit Singh Channi had been doing the rounds. Kaypee, when asked if he would support the Congress candidate, said, “I am in Delhi for attending a marriage. I will be back in Jalandhar tomorrow. I will discuss the matter with my supporters. If they will agree, I will support the candidate announced by the party.” Kaypee had in 2009 bagged as many as 4.08 lakh votes from the seat.

Since Jalandhar LS seat is reserved, all parties are looking for a promising Dalit face and getting their internal surveys done. From the Akali Dal, the name of ex-CPS Pawan Tinu has been doing rounds. Tinu was the SAD nominee in 2014 also when he had trailed behind Santokh Singh Chaudhary with nearly 70,000 votes. The party had then contested in alliance with the BJP. The BJP, which will be contesting its first solo LS election, is expected to fare well from the four urban Assembly seats, including Jalandhar North, Jalandhar Central, Jalandhar West and Jalandhar Cantt, but may not get a good response from the other five rural seats.

This time, the SAD will be contesting in alliance with the BSP. The BSP’s individual performance in the last few Lok Sabha elections has shown a lot of variation from getting just 47,000 votes for its then candidate Sukhwinder Kotli in 2014 to as many as 2.04 lakh votes for Balwinder Kumar in 2019. In 2009, the party candidate Surjit Singh had polled 93,500 votes.

AAP’s Justice Zora Singh had performed dismally in the last LS elections polling only 25.467 votes and getting 2.5 per cent voteshare. In contrast, Jyoti Mann had unexpectedly got as many as 2.54 lakh votes and a voteshare of 24.42 per cent. Since the party is in power in the state now, it is expected to improve its prospects. Having lost Sangrur, the party cannot afford to lose a second Lok Sabha bypoll within the first 14-15 months of its rule.