Home turf steered AAP candidate’s win from Hoshiarpur, let saffron party down

Sanjiv Kumar Bakshi

Hoshiarpur, June 4

The Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat, which consists of nine assembly segments spread over three districts, saw interesting results. While AAP candidate Dr Raj Kumar won by a huge margin in his home constituency Chabbewal, BJP candidate Anita Som Prakash failed to gain lead even in her hometown Phagwara.

Of the nine assembly segments, AAP lead in four, Congress in two and BJP in three segments. In Chabbewal, former MLA Dr Raj Kumar secured 44,933 votes, while Yamini Gomar of the Congress, who was in second place, got 18,162 votes and SAD’s Sohan Singh Thandal, who had also been an MLA from Chabbewal earlier, remained at third place getting 11,935 votes.

AAP took lead in the Bholath assembly constituency. The Congress candidate also secured a good number of votes, only 759 votes less than the AAP candidate.

In Sri Hargobindpur, the Congress secured first place by getting 35,258 votes, while AAP remained at second place with 28,955 votes. The Congress was ahead of AAP by 3,034 votes in Urmar constituency also.

In Phagwara, the home turf of BJP candidate Anita Som Prakash, AAP candidate Dr Rajkumar remained at first place with 30,349 votes, while Congress’s Yamini Gomar remained at second place with 29,390 votes, while BJP candidate Anita Som Prakash, came third despite Phagwara being her hometown, lagging behind with 27,756 votes.

In postal ballots, the Congress got 1,812 votes, AAP got 1,457, BJP got 1,418 and SAD got 286 votes. As many as 631 votes were rejected.

Though the BJP definitely had an edge in Mukerian and Dasuya, it was much less than in the last election.

Garhshankar’s role in Kang’s victory from Shri Anandpur Sahib

Garhshankar: AAP candidate Malvinder Singh Kang won from the Sri Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha constituency by defeating Congress candidate Vijay Inder Singla. He registered victory by 10,846 votes in which the Garhshankar assembly segment had a major share. Kang had taken a lead of 10,711 votes in Garhshankar.

Malvinder Singh Kang got 33,789 votes in Garhshankar Assembly constituency, while Congress candidate Vijay Inder Singla got 23,078 votes, BJP candidate Subhash Sharma got 18,971 votes, BSP’s Jasvir Singh Garhi got 13,346 votes and SAD’s Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra got only 11,270 votes. Apart from this, 485 voters pressed the NOTA button.

The condition of SAD worsened in Garhshankar constituency as the party, which was in third place in the last assembly elections in Garhshankar, slipped to fifth place this time while the BSP managed to secure the fourth place. The BSP’s better performance has given a jolt to the Congress by making a dent in its vote bank.