Punjab’s Barnala that has mostly voted against ruling party to see 5-cornered contest

However, looking back on the history of the constituency, it made the political career of Surjit Singh Barnala, president of SAD (Longowal), who became MLA from this seat in 1969, 1972, 1980 and 1985, while his wife (Surjeet Kaur Barnala) became a legislator in 1977. In 1985, Barnala even became the chief minister (11th) of Punjab. This was during the militancy period.

Barnala: A look at the constituency

However, analysing election results since 1997, the voters had elected MLAs of political parties opposed to the ruling party in five out of six elections.

In 1997, when SAD-BJP alliance had a landslide victory in Punjab, winning 95 out of 117 seats, Barnala had elected an independent candidate, Malkeet Singh Keetu, who defeated SAD candidate Rajinder Kaur by 23,714 votes. Keetu later joined the Akali Dal and won on a SAD ticket in 2002 polls. However, that year the Congress had formed government in Punjab. In 2007 and 2012 elections, the constituency elected Congress’s Kewal Singh Dhillon, but the SAD-BJP combine was at the helm in Punjab in both these terms. In 2017, when the Congress came to power in Punjab after winning 77 seats, Barnala chose an AAP MLA (Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer), who had defeated Congress’s Kewal Dhillon with a margin of 2,432 votes.

But in 2022 polls, voters broke the jinx, electing Meet Hayer again from Barnala who ultimately vacated the seat after becoming a Lok Sabha member.

Barnala assembly seat comes under Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency and the AAP calls it as its political capital, as Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, Cabinet ministers Aman Arora and Barinder Kumar Goyal hail from this area. Sangrur parliamentary constituency has 9 assembly segments, including Barnala.
Kewal Singh Dhillon had switched to the BJP in June 2022. He had even contested the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll on a BJP ticket. He is now the BJP candidate from this constituency for the upcoming assembly byelection.

While the AAP has fielded Harinder Singh Dhaliwal, the Congress has bet on Kuldeep Singh Kala Dhillon who was earlier in Congress and later switched to people’s party of Punjab, AAP before coming back to Congress. AAP rebel Gurdeep Singh Bathh is contesting as an independent, while Govind Singh Mann, grandson of SAD (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Mann, is the candidate for SAD (Amritsar). Simranjit Singh Mann had won Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll in June 2022, 4 months after AAP’s landslide victory in Punjab assembly polls.

AAP rebel Bathh chose to fight as an independent after he got upset when Meet Hayer’s cousin was given ticket by the party. Bathh was the Barnala district president of AAP, which expelled him from the party after he filed the nomination papers as an independent.

Waterlogging is a big issue in Barnala. After every downpour, it takes hours to drain water out. There is not a single super speciality hospital in entire Barnala district — neither public nor private. Patients have to be taken to Rajindra Medical College and Hospital, Patiala, or to Ludhiana’s DMCH/CMCH for treatment. And because of this, many a time casualties occur. BJP candidate Kewal Singh Dhillon alleged that he had got one government super speciality hospital approved for this constituency during Congress government, but AAP sat on the project after coming to power.