AAP demolishes Congress, BJP bastion in Ludhiana East

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, March 15

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) tsunami that swept the district by winning 13 of the total 14 Assembly seats during the Punjab Vidhan Sabha elections also demolished the Congress and the BJP bastion in Ludhiana East.

Another urban seat, Ludhiana East, had been represented by the Congress five times, the BJP thrice and SAD once since its inception in 1977.

The AAP’s turncoat Daljit Singh Grewal (Bhola), 56, had not only defeated the Congress MLA Sanjeev Talwar, but also forfeited the security deposits of rest of all 12 contestants in the poll fray, including the SAD’s former MLA Ranjit Singh Dhillon (56) and the BJP’s veteran leader Jagmohan Sharma.

The SAD and BJP also polled their lowest-ever vote share this time. While Dhillon secured 20,369 votes, accounting for 14.1 per cent vote share, Sharma got 18,074 votes, constituting 12.51 per cent vote share.

Among other candidates, who lost their security deposits, included Rajinder Singh of the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM), Gurjodh Singh Gill of the Lok Insaaf Party (LIP), Jaswant Singh of the SAD (Amritsar), Suresh Singh of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Sat Naryan Sah of the Nationalist Justice Party (NJP), Jatinder Singh of the Peoples Party of India (Democratic), Narinder Pal Sidhu of the Aam Lok Party United (ALPU), Pardeep Singh Dhawan of the Insaniyat Lok Vikas Party (ILVP) and the Independents Davinder Singh Billa and Raman Kumar (Jagdamba).

Past trend

Since the inception of the Ludhiana East constituency in 1977, the Congress had won for the maximum of five times in 2017, 2002, 1985, 1980 and 1977, followed by the BJP, which represented this seat thrice in 2007, 1997 and 1992, and the SAD had emerged victorious from here once in 2012.

Know your MLA

• Daljit Singh Grewal (Bhola), a matriculate realtor and agriculturist, whose wife Balwinder Kaur is a municipal councillor, was the party’s Ludhiana (Urban) president and in-charge of the Ludhiana East constituency. He had quit the AAP and joined the Congress before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, but later returned to the AAP, to get re-nominated again.
• Bhola, who had unsuccessfully contested the last two elections from Ludhiana East, on the AAP ticket in 2017 and as an Independent in 2012, polled 68,682 votes, which accounted for 47.54 per cent, to defeat by a margin of 35,922 votes Congress MLA Sanjeev Talwar, who got 32,760 votes, constituting 22.67 per cent vote share, the lowest ever so far.
• Bhola had entered the politics in 2007 when he was elected as a municipal councillor and had joined the SAD, which he quit in 2012 when he contested his maiden Assembly election from here as an Independent.
• “Education and health will be our focus areas, while infrastructure development and basic civic amenities to all will also be ensured,” the new MLA said, while adding that the people will feel the difference under the new regime.