NOTA outnumbers vote share of 36 candidates from Ludhiana LS seat

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, June 10

Call it a bad selection of candidates or disenchantment with political parties, the count of NOTA (none of the above) votes outnumbered the vote share of 36 candidates in polling held to the 18th General Election for the Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat.

With 0.48 per cent of the total votes polled going to the NOTA, as many as 5,078 electors rejected all 43 nominees, which was the maximum number in the state, in the poll fray from this predominantly general parliamentary constituency.

Surprisingly, only seven candidates, including six from mainstream political parties and an Independent, surpassed the NOTA votes.

Barring three top contenders – the winner Amrinder Singh Raja Warring of the Congress, runner-up Ravneet Singh Bittu of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and third finisher Ashok Parashar Pappi of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – all other 40 candidates lost their security deposits after failing to garner even 1,76,613, which was one-sixth of the total polled 10,59,678 votes, including 2,459 postal ballots.

According to the final result figures issued by Returning Officer Sakshi Sawhney, a copy of which is with The Tribune, the minimum of 284, which accounted for 0.03 per cent vote share, were polled by an Independent, Rajinder Ghai, followed by 340 (0.03%) by another Independent Karnail Singh, 344 (0.03%) by other independents Vishal Kumar Arora and 383 (0.04%) by Kuldeep Kumar Sharma.

Among other nominees, who topped from the bottom, Darshan Singh Daba of the Nationalist Justice Party got 390 votes (0.04%), Independent Bhola Singh 411 (0.04%), Harvinder Kaur of the Samajik Sangharsh Party 419 (0.04%), Shivam Yadav of the Gobal Republican Party 415 (0.04%), Independents Jai Parkash Jain (Titu Baniya) 419 (0.04%), Baldev Singh Suman 450 (0.04%), Chandi 456 (0.04%), Rupinder Kumar 467 (0.04%), Gurmeet Singh Kharay 517 (0.05%), Ravinder Pal Singh Baba Ji Bargar Wale 548 (0.05%), Kamal Pawar 592 (0.06%), Santosh Kumar 510 (0.06%), Kirpal Singh Kapuri 621 (0.06%), Dr Devinder Singh Gill of the Aam Lok Party United 695 (0.07%), Independents Gurdeep Singh Kahlon 738 (0.07%), Kaniya Lal (Dr Kishan Kumar) 820 (0.08%), Devinder Bhagria of the Hindustan Shakti Sena 860 (0.08%), independents Simrandeep Singh 912 (0.09%), Balvinder Singh Bitta 918 (0.09%), Patamjit Singh 927 (0.09%), Amandeep Singh of the Sehajdhari Sikh Party 987 (0.09%), Independents Vipan Kumar Batra 1,041 (0.1%), Baljit Singh 1,138 (0.11%), Bhupinder Singh of the Bharatheeya Jawan Kisan Party 1,287 (0.12%), Rajiv Kumar Mehra of the Jan Sewa Driver Party 1,518 (0.14%), Independents Sanjeev Kumar Sanju 1,567 (0.15%), Dr Palwinder Kaur 1,768 (0.17%), Pritpal Singh of the Bahujan Dravida Party 1,824 (0.17%), Independent Baldev Raj Katna 2,086 (0.2%), Rakesh Kumar Ricky of the Sunahara Bharat Party 2,091 (0.2%) and Independent Naresh Dhingaan polled 2,530 votes, which constituted 0.24 per cent vote share.

While Davinder Singh Ramgarhia of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got 10,394 votes, which accounted for 0.98 per cent vote share, Amritpal Singh Chhandran of the SAD (Amritsar) got 18,241 votes (1.72 per cent vote share).

An Independent, Kamaljit Singh Brar, managed 42,500 votes, accounting for 4.01 per cent vote share, while Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) nominee Ranjit Singh Dhillon garnered 90,220 votes, constituting 8.52 per cent vote share.

Pertinently, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, who was dubbed as an “outsider”, had pipped his friend-turned-foe turncoat three-time sitting MP Ravneet Singh Bittu of the BJP, whom he called as “traitor” to wrest the Ludhiana LS seat.

Three-time sitting MLA from Gidderbaha, Warring polled 3,22,224 votes, which were 20,497 more than 3,01,282 votes polled by his arch rival Bittu, to win Ludhiana for the record fourth time in a row. No other party had represented this predominantly urban general seat four times consecutively since 1952.

The ruling AAP’s sitting MLA Parashar finished third with 2,37,077 votes while the SAD’s former MLA Ranjit Singh Dhillon stood poor fourth with 90,220 votes, also losing his security deposit.

Interestingly, Warring led from only four of the total nine Assembly segments in this parliamentary seat while Bittu secured maximum votes from five Vidhan Sabha seats. However, AAP trailed in all nine segments, eight of which it had won in the 2022 Assembly poll. Its candidate Parashar even lost from his Ludhiana Central seat, from where he was elected two years ago.

While Gill, Dakha and Jagraon (all rural pockets) and urban Atam Nagar Assembly segment added to the victory of Warring, the urban seats of Ludhiana East, South, Central, West and North gave lead to the BJP.

From the very first round, Warring secured the lead over his nearest rival Bittu and the margin kept swinging from as low as 2,000 votes to as high as 27,000 votes.

Of his total 3,22,224 polled votes, including 800 postal ballots, Warring got maximum 54,981 votes from Gill, followed by 41,296 from Ludhiana East, 40,276 from Dakha, 34,734 from Jagraon, 32,982 from Ludhiana South, 31,415 from Ludhiana North, 30,889 from Ludhiana West, 30,696 from Atam Nagar, and lowest 24,155 from Ludhiana Central Assembly segment.

Bittu’s 3,01,282 votes came from highest 53,725 in Ludhiana North, followed by 50,833 from Ludhiana East, 45,424 from Ludhiana West, 41,450 in Ludhiana Central, 37,278 in Ludhiana South, 30,154 in Gill, 22,753 in Atam Nagar, 12,138 in Jagraon and the lowest of 7,072 votes in Dakha, besides getting 355 postal ballots.

For AAP’s Parashar, the total of 2,37,077 polled votes comprised maximum 41,520 from Gill, followed by 28,743 in Dakha, 28,096 in Ludhiana East, 25,745 in Jagraon, 25,600 in Atam Nagar, 25,127 in Ludhiana North, 22,461 in Ludhiana West, second lowest 20,039 votes from his own Ludhiana Central and the minimum of 19,289 votes in Ludhiana South besides 457 postal ballots.

Cong vote share 30.42%

The winning Congress secured 30.42 per cent vote share while the runner-up BJP got 28.45 per cent of the total polled votes followed by 22.38 per cent vote share by the ruling AAP. While the SAD’s vote share remained 8.52 per cent, the SAD (Mann) and the BSP polled 1.72 per cent and 0.98 per cent votes, respectively, which were even collectively less than 4.01 per cent vote share logged by an Independent, Kamaljit Singh Brar.