The Jalandhar Byelection 2023 has been concluded with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Sushil Rinku breaking the Congress stronghold and winning 7 out of 9 constituencies. While Sushil Rinku secured 302097 votes, Congress came second with 243450 votes. On number 3 it was SAD with 158354, while the biggest political party of India- the BJP suffered an embarrassing defeat and came to number 4th with 134706 votes. Notably, BJP was banking big in the Jalandhar Byelection 2023 which was considered to be the vital one if the saffron party had to make its footprint stronger the Dalit community dominated Doaba ahead of the upcoming 2024 General Elections. For this, the BJP had contested Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, a former member of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) as its candidate.
Inder Atwal is the son of Lok Sabha's former Deputy Speaker Charanjit Atwal who reportedly belongs to the Mazhabi Sikh Community. Mazhabi Sikh Community holds the key to Jalandhar Bypolls along with Ravidas Community and Charanjit Atwal is known for his influence in the Atwal community. Therefore, the BJP expected to woo the Mazhabi Sikh community vote bank through Atwal. However, seeing the Jalandhar Lok Sabha Byelection 2023, it can be said that the strategy of the BJP high command appointed to oversee the Jalandhar Bypolls failed miserably.
Out of the 9 constituencies, BJP managed to get a lead in only 2 namely- Jalandhar Central and Jalandhar North. However, it is said that it was AAP's internal politics due to which BJP managed to secure a lead in two constituencies. Many big BJP leaders like MP from Hoshiarpur & Union Minister Somnath Prakash and Union Minister Hardeep Puri had tried their best to woo voters. However, neither Union Minister Somnath was able to woo Dalit vote bank nor Hardeep Puri won the votes of the Sikh community.
Notably, BJP had appointed former Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani to oversee the campaigning and strategy of the Jalandhar Lok Sabha Byelection. It is also said that BJP spent crores of rupees in the campaigns and spent every ounce of its power to woo the voters. From day 1, Somprakash was campaigning for the party and also visited villages to interact with the people. But this does not won the votes of the Dalit community. Furthermore, Hardeep Puri stayed in Jalandhar for 4 to 5 days and participated in multiple meetings with the stake holders. Also, he participated in Nukad Sabhas in order to woo the voters, however, the final result, showcased that the Union Minister could not woo the Sikh vote bank.
As per sources in the party, there is a discussion going on in which it has come to light that many veteran leaders' appeal and base to the masses have been decreasing. BJP's State leadership influence on the masses has ben decreased as they could not impact the people and also they could not keep the workers together.
It is pertinent to mention here that in 2019, BJP contested the Lok Sabha Election hand-in-hand with the SAD in Punjab. BJP had won from Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur. While from Hoshiarpur Somprakash had won, from Gurdaspur, Sunny Deol had won the election. During the 2022 election, BJP won from Mukeria constituency, while in the rest 8 constituency, the saffron party lost the election. Notably, BJP had fought the election in 2022 alone with no alliance in Punjab. Somprakash who was once an MLA from Phagwara could not secure victory for the party from that particular constituency. Therefore, the graph of BJP has been declining under the current leadership in Punjab.