BJP citadel collapses, turncoat Raj Kumar Chabbewal wins Hoshiarpur

Sanjiv Kumar Bakshi

Hoshiarpur, June 4

In a one-sided contest from the beginning, Raj Kumar Chabbewal of Aam Aadmi Party defeated his nearest rival Congress candidate Yamini Gomar by 44,411 votes. Chabbewal got 3,03,859 votes while Yamini Gomar could manage 2,59,748 votes.

BJP, which has been in power in Hoshiarpur for two consecutive terms, lagged badly this time and BJP candidate Anita Som Prakash, wife of outgoing Union Minister of State Som Prakash, could secured only 1,99,994 votes and ended third. Shiromani Akali Dal, contested for the first time from Hoshiarpur on its own. SAD candidate Sohan Singh Thandal came fourth with 91,789 votes. Bahujan Samaj Party, which got more than 1.28 lakh votes in the last election, could not even touch the figure of 50,000 this time and BSP candidate Ranjit Kumar remained at fifth place with 48,214 votes.

This time, all eyes were on the result of this seat (reserved for Scheduled Castes) as Bhimrao Yashwant Ambedkar, grandson of Bhimrao Ambedkar was contesting the election on the ticket of Global Republican Party, but was able to get only 1,041 votes and remained at the third lowest position among all the candidates. NOTA was also used extensively and 5,552 people thought it better to press the NOTA button instead of voting for any candidate. Interestingly, 10 out of 16 candidates contesting elections in Hoshiarpur got votes much lesser than NOTA.