BJP exults after high turnout in several Gurdaspur segments

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, June 2

The high voter turnout in three Assembly segments of the Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency — Bhoa, Pathankot (City) and Sujanpur — has brought smiles on the faces of the BJP leaders who said this would help their candidate Dinesh Babbu.

The voting percentage in each of the three seats has been pegged at more than 70 per cent. They maintain that a survey conducted by the party just after the elections ended yesterday evening corroborated their view point.

These three segments are traditionally considered as Hindu seats as the community reigns supreme in these areas. Sikh voters dominate five segments —Fatehgarh Churian, Dera Baba Nanak, Batala, Qadian and Gurdaspur (City) — while Dinanagar is considered to be a borderline seat.

The BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally at Dinanagar on May 24 had come as a big boost. “We expect to add 35,000 to 45,000 votes to our total tally just because of the PM’s rally,” said a top party leader.

The BJP leaders said their party would make a clean sweep in these three segments like Sunny Deol did in 2019. The actor had taken a collective lead of 1.10 lakh votes from these seats which was enough for him to counter the negative impacts emanating from the Sikh-dominated segments.