With huge win in Jalandhar bypoll, AAP breaches Congress fort of over 2 decades

The constituency witnessed massive campaigns by all major parties, the BJP and the SAD-BSP combine being two other main players.

Even a united face did not help the Congress keep its stronghold. The Dalit factor that used to favour the Congress did not do so this time.

Rinku remained ahead in all rounds of the counting and polled 3,02,297 votes, including 182 postal votes, with a 34.05 per cent vote share—a huge improvement from the AAP’s 2.5 per cent vote share in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Congress candidate Karamjit Kaur, wife of the late Santokh Singh Chaudhary, a two-time MP and former minister, finished a distant second with 2,43,588 (27.44 per cent) of the total 8,87,086 votes polled through EVMs and 540 postal votes. The party’s vote share came down by 10.46 per cent.

Surprisingly the BJP, which remained ahead of its former ally SAD in several rounds, finished fourth with 1,34,800 votes (15.19 per cent) in its first solo fight in the Lok Sabha constituency.

The SAD-BSP combine stood at number three with 1,58,455 votes (17.85 per cent). The SAD (Amritsar), which won the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll last June by defeating the AAP, polled only 20,354 votes (2.29 per cent). A total of 6,661 votes were polled under NOTA.

Factors that worked in favour of the AAP’s “parachute candidate” Rinku, a former Congress MLA, include the fact that close to four years are left before the Assembly polls, the appeal by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to give them just 11 months to develop Jalandhar, zero power bills, Aam Aadmi Clinics, alleged intimidation of sarpanches, and the support from the United Punjab Party, formed in the run-up to the May 10 poll by Christian leaders.

The AAP’s strategy of inaugurating several projects in the adjacent districts during the campaign period also played a role.

When the counting was in progress, AAP supporters had already begun celebrations. Several senior AAP leaders gathered at the counting centre to congratulate Rinku.

Rinku thanked the people of his constituency for their love and faith. “I am thankful to Arvind Kejriwal-ji and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for trusting me and also to all senior party leaders who remained in the constituency campaigning for me extensively,” he said, adding that his victory was proof that the people of the state had accepted the party’s policies.

Jalandhar, however, saw this time one of its lowest turnouts since 1999 as only 54.70 per cent of voters exercised their franchise. And 1.34 per cent more women voted than men.

All major parties had inducted people from other parties ahead of the bypoll, the AAP’s Rinku and BJP candidate Inder Iqbal Atwal being the most prominent turncoats.

The ruling party had managed to attract huge crowds in its over a dozen election roadshows.

Five consecutive Congress wins

The Jalandhar Parliament seat has witnessed 20 elections, including bypolls, since 1952. While the Congress won it 15 times, the SAD and the Janata Dal won twice each. And the AAP, which has been in the fray since 2014, has won the seat for the first time.

Since 1999 the constituency had been represented by Congress candidates. In 1999 the Congress’s Balbir Singh won with a 47.48 per cent vote share and Rana Gurjit Singh in 2004 with 46.46 per cent of the votes. Mohinder Singh Kaypee was elected in 2009 with a vote share of 45.34 per cent and Santokh Chaudhary won the polls in 2014 and 2019, with voting shares of 36.56 per cent and 37.90 per cent respectively.