Tarn Taran bypoll: Despite majority, AAP leaving nothing to chance

As campaigning for the “high stakes” Tarn Taran bypoll drew to a close today, all eyes are now on the voting day on November 11 and the result day on November 14. This because this bypoll, though just 15 months before the scheduled Vidhan Sabha elections of 2027, is likely to set the agenda, tone and tenor of the next Assembly poll, besides charting the course of all political parties in fray.

The result of this election has no immediate political significance for AAP if it wins. This is because the party already has 93 MLAs in the 117-member House, way above the majority. But since this byelection will set the political tone for 2027 poll, the ruling dispensation is leaving nothing to chance.

This bypoll in the Panthic constituency of Tarn Taran was necessitated because of the death of AAP MLA Kashmir Singh Sohal. To retain this seat, the ruling party has gone all guns blazing. For the past one week, the party had put all its leaders on poll duty, reaching out to voters with the promise of development, reminding them of their “Yudh Nasheyan Virudh” campaign, and the efforts made by the state government to evacuate and help flood-ravaged people in August-September.

A war room manned by the party’s top strategists and Delhi leaders has been set up and they are working behind the scenes to ensure a win, while campaigning was more or less left to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

The ruling party, however, is also finding the going tough after the arrest of DIG Harcharan Singh Bhullar by the CBI in a corruption case last month. The arrest and subsequent CBI investigation has purportedly unearthed a larger rot in the government with names of several officers being thrown up for their close connection with the arrested police officer as well as the middleman in this corruption case, Kirshanu Sharda. This, along with the issue of slow pace of development in the Assembly segment and a relative disconnect of voters with the now deceased MLA, are the challenges faced by AAP.

Perhaps, realising this, the party has placed its bet on old war horse from Tarn Taran Harmeet Singh Sandhu, who had been elected as MLA from here thrice earlier (twice on SAD ticket and once as Independent MLA), by making him the AAP candidate. The party seems to be promising the moon to voters by including an assurance of starting the Rs 1,100 per month honorarium to all women in 2026. The party is also playing the Panthic card here as the leaders gave details on how the state had opened its coffers to mark the 350th martyrdom anniversary of Guru Teg Bahadur.