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Journalism of Courage
A Punjabi singer-turned-politician, a former Congressman and a builder managed to win the Assembly elections in the district. The winning candidates will enter the Assembly for the first time. In Mohali and Derabassi, the AAP candidates managed to defeat the old-timers while in Kharar the AAP managed to buck anti-incumbency and retained the seat.
Singer-turned-politician makes it to House for the first time
AAP’s candidate from Kharar Anmol Gagan Mann had tried her luck in singing and entered politics just ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections. When she was given the ticket, she started working in the constituency where she had competition from the SAD’s Ranjeet Singh Gill.
Gill was considered a strong candidate as he had been working in Kharar for the past five years. He contested the elections in 2017 and got around 46,000 votes.
In 2017, AAP’s Kanwar Sandhu had won the Kharar seat but he remained absent for a long time due to which there was strong anti-incumbency in the constituency. But Mann managed to connect to the people and won.
Punjab’s richest candidate defeats three-time MLA
The richest candidate in Punjab, Kulwant Singh defeated three-time MLA and former Punjab health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu. Kulwant, a leading builder, had contested the parliamentary elections in 2014 on SAD ticket but lost. He then became the first mayor of Mohali in 2015 after rebelling against his party, SAD, with the help of the Congress. He again joined the SAD.
In 2021, just ahead of the civic body elections, he again rebelled against the SAD and formed his Azad Group. His group managed to win in 10 wards but he lost the elections with a margin of around 700 votes. Kulwant Singh started his political career in 1991 when he became the municipal councillor. He also remained the president of Mohali Municipal Council before it was upgraded to the Municipal Corporation.
Former Congressman wins big in Dera Bassi
Former Congressman and former president of Derabassi Truck Union Kuljeet Singh Randhawa managed to win big in a multi-corner contest in Derabassi. He joined the AAP last year and got the ticket. He was in Congress for around 20 years and wanted to contest the elections this time but the Congress had denied him the ticket.
Randhawa’s family was into village politics as his uncle remained sarpanch of his village. His fight was with two-time MLA N K Sharma and Congress’s Deepinder Dhillon. Randhawa defeated Dhillon while Sharma remained at the third place. Randhawa is the first non-SAD candidate who has won the elections from Derabassi since 1997. Earlier, Derabassi was part of Banur Assembly segment and was represented by former Akali stalwart Captain Kanwaljeet Singh.
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