Polling day for Jalandhar West bye-elections is just around the corner and all the political parties have started gearing up. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann took it upon himself to join frontlines to campaign for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate, taking charge on Sunday. Meanwhile, Sunil Jakhar, Ravneet Bittu and former MP Sushil Rinku are in the fray from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who got record votes for Congress, is leading the front for their candidate.
Candidates from SAD are in the fray, but they cannot be directly seen campaigning for their candidates. Therefore, the main contest is generally being regarded to be between Surinder Kaur of Congress, Mohinder Bhagat of AAP and Sheetal Angural of BJP. AAP is putting all its strength into the campaign as is evident by the fact that during his visit to Jalandhar on Sunday, CM Mann has made the first line leaders of AAP aware of his attitude that there should be no shortage in the elections.
In fact, AAP won the Jalandhar West seat in 2022 with Sheetal Angural becaming the MLA, but within two years he was disillusioned with the party and switched to BJP. Mohinder Bhagat, who lost the election in 2022 fighting from BJP, has been given the AAP ticket. Sheetal Angural was an MLA from AAP making this seat has a matter of prestige for the Chief Minister, who will looking to defeat BJP at all costs.
Punjab Legislative Assembly Bye-elections:
After this, by-elections are to be held on four assembly seats in Punjab. In such a situation, the defeat or victory of the West seat can affect the elections of the upcoming four seats. Secondly, the way Sheetal Angural has challenged CM Mann and joined BJP, the party has suffered a major setback. However, the elections will be held under the leadership of CM Mann.
BJP pulls on the senior leaders’ influence:
Parallelly, the trio of Ravneet Bittu, Sunil Jakhar and Sushil Rinku is putting in all its efforts for the Sheetal Angural’s victory for BJP. The BJP high command does not want to leave any stone unturned in putting in its efforts on this seat, because Sheetal joined the BJP after resignigning as the AAP MLA. The BJP is putting all its strength from Delhi on this seat. When Sheetal Angural won from AAP in 2022, he got 39,213 votes while Sushil Rinku of Congress got 34,960 votes. Mohindra Pal Bhagat, who was on the BJP ticket, recieved 33,486 votes. Now the times have changed, Mohinder Bhagat, who contested from BJP, is the candidate of AAP and Sheetal Angural, who became MLA from AAP, is a BJP candidate and Sushil Rinku has also joined BJP.
Charanjit Singh Channi becomes Surinder Kaur's charioteer:
Charanjit Singh Channi has been put in-charge of Jalandhar West. Channi had secured a bumper victory on June 4, 19 days ago. He managed to earn 3,90,053 votes in Jalandhar Lok Sabha elections, while BJP's Sushil Kumar Rinku got 2,14,060 votes. AAP's Pawan Tinu got 2,08,889 and SAD's Mohinder Singh KP got 67,911 votes on this seat. Channi also took the lead in Jalandhar West, which is the assembly constituency of Rinku and Sheetal Angural. In the results of the Lok Sabha elections, BJP got 42,837 votes in Jalandhar West, Congress got 44,394 votes, while AAP got 15,629. Therefore, Channi has become Surinder Kaur's charioteer from this seat.
The bugle for the Jalandhar West assembly elections was sounded on June 14. The polls will be held on July 10. the result will be announced on July 13 (Saturday) after the counting of votes. The electoral process is expected to be wrapped up by July 15.