Akali Dal gains ground in Malwa, lags behind in Majha & Doaba regions

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has gained some ground in the Malwa region while it is still struggling to make a comeback in the state’s Majha and Doaba areas, suggest the results of the recent zila parishad and block samiti polls.

“Owing to the misuse of official machinery, ruling AAP made its candidates win unopposed and a large number of SAD nominees were denied opportunity to contest due to rejection of papers on flimsy grounds,” said SAD spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema.

According to data, of 347 zila parishad zones, the SAD secured victories in 46. Similarly, of 2,838 panchayat samiti zones, the SAD secured 445 zones to finish at the third place in the rural body polls.

In the Malwa region, the SAD’s most significant win was in Faridkot where it outclassed ruling AAP too.

Of 10 zones of zila parishad, the SAD won five, whereas AAP won in four and the Congress had to contend with just one. Similarly, in 65 zones of panchayat samiti, the Akali Dal was victorious in 25, AAP in 21 and the Congress 17.

The SAD’s win in Faridkot zone caught the fancy as it includes Behbal Kalan and Jaitu block samitis, where the 2015 sacrilege incidents had occurred during the SAD-BJP regime, resulting in a political decline for the Akali Dal.

The party’s win from the Sandhwa village is also notable as it falls under the Kotkapura Assembly constituency in Faridkot district, which is represented by AAP MLA and Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan. The SAD also dominaned Bathinda, winning 13 of 17 zila parishad seats. It won seven of 13 seats in Muktsar.

Similarly, the party secured victory in 79 of 137 Bathinda panchayat samiti zones and 48 of 95 in Muktsar.

However, it lagged in the Majha region.

Of the 24 Amritsar zila parishad zones, the SAD could win only 4 and in panchayat samiti, it could pocket just 27 of 195 seats. In Tarn Taran, of 20 zones of zila parishad, the SAD got victory in just one. In the panchayat samiti there, the SAD could win just 17 of 165 zones.

In Gurdaspur, the SAD could not open its account and had to contend with just four of 165 panchayat samiti seats. The party could not win a single seat in 93 panchayat samiti and 10 zila parishad seats in Pathankot. In Doaba region, the SAD’s performance remained lacklustre. It won one of 21 zones of zila parishad in Jalandhar; none of 25 in Hoshiarpur; one of 10 in Kapurthala and none of 10 in SBS Nagar. In the panchayat samiti polls, the SAD won just 18 seats in 188 zones of Jalandhar; 8 of 88 zones in Kapurthala; 9 of 208 in Hoshiarpur and just eight of 82 in SBS Nagar.