Mohinder Bhagat registers first electoral victory of his political career

 Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, July 13

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s calculated gamble in shifting base to Jalandhar ahead of the Jalandhar West bypoll has paid rich dividends for the AAP. The party’s candidate, Mohinder Bhagat, registered a comfortable victory in the bypoll with a total reversal in AAP’s vote share as compared to the just concluded general elections in Jalandhar. Compared to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when the AAP received just 15,629 votes, the AAP has received 39,617 votes more this time.

AAP’s Mohinder Bhagat has won the seat by a lead margin of 37,325 votes (postal ballots yet to be counted). Bhagat received 55,246 votes, while BJP candidate Sheetal Angural stands in the second position with 17,921 votes and Congress reduced to number three with 16,757 votes.

This is veteran leader and former BJP leader Mohinder Bhagat’s first electoral win in his decades-long political career. It is also Mohinder Bhagat’s first win from Jalandhar West, a constituency (formerly called Jalandhar South), which his father won three times.

The projection of Bhagat’s image as a ‘Bhagat’ (saintly man) and an honest person yielded much fruit for the AAP.

Buoyed by the Bhagat community’s massive support and a contest centred around the individual character of candidates, Mohinder Bhagat registered a decisive victory, maintaining a constant lead and not trailing even once since round one.

The political dynamics in the seat totally reversed within a few days of the Jalandhar LS polls held in May this year. AAP had been at number three in LS polls, now winning it. The Congress, which had won the constituency in the LS polls, has now been reduced to number three. The BJP came in at a close second in the LS polls too, but its vote share in the bypoll has considerably reduced from 42,837 (Jalandhar LS poll) to 17,921 in the bypoll.

The entire state cadre of the AAP, from ministers to MPs and state functionaries, had descended on Jalandhar for the bypoll and the CM’s events ran to packed gatherings. His family also plunged into the campaign, with his sister and wife holding campaign meetings and calling on workers’ homes.

The victory was much needed for AAP after the recent drubbing in the LS polls.

Meanwhile, individually too, Bhagat’s faith in the AAP and a year-long wait (he had joined the AAP ahead of the 2023 Jalandhar bypoll) to contest a poll, have yielded results. His father, Chunni Lal Bhagat, also backed his son, making a rare appearance in the heated campaign.

The former BJP veteran has emerged taller in Jalandhar West from his rivals Sheetal Angural as well as Sushil Rinku, both of whom are now in the BJP, and against both of whom he had lost by turns in 2017 and 2022.