Some bureaucrats win, some lose in Doaba belt
Jalandhar, March 10
The results of ex-bureaucrats from Doaba in the Assembly elections were a mixed bag.
Among the candidates from Doaba, there were many retired IAS officers and cops. While some of them have found favour with the electors, some got trounced. Among the winners is Pargat Singh from Jalandhar Cantonment, who has been a retired SP in Punjab Police and ex-Director Sports too. His rival Surinder Sodhi, too, is an ex-IG Punjab Police. But he lost his chance as the AAP candidate.
Retired IAS officer Balwinder Dhaliwal won for the second time from Phagwara bagging 37,102 votes. He had taken retirement just months ahead of Phagwara bypoll in 2019 when BJP MLA Som Parkash had won the Parliamentary poll. He has won this time again amid much shake up. In initial rounds, AAP’s Joginder Mann kept on taking lead. Even BSP state president Jasvir Garhi had started taking lead here, but finally Dhaliwal made it in his favour. From the same seat, Khushi Ram, a retired IAS, was the candidate of Sanyukt Samaj Morcha but he could garner only 1104 votes, facing forfeiture of his deposit like most other candidates of the party.
From Kartarpur, former Punjab Police DCP Balkar Singh has emerged the winner. His police contemporary Shammi Kumar, who retired as AIG and was Punjab Lok Congress from Nakodar, could poll only 2,029 votes, losing his security deposit as was the case with other PLC candidates. From Balachaur, Ashok Baath, who was BJP candidate and a retired police officer, too has lost his security deposit getting only 5,566 votes.
