AAP nets another dynast defector ahead of Jalandhar LS bypoll: Leader from long-time BJP family

Bhagat follows into the AAP close on the heels of former Congress MLA Sushil Rinku, who is now the AAP candidate for the Jalandhar bypoll. Rinku’s family has an association of over four decades with the Congress.

In the 2022 Assembly elections incidentally, Bhagat and Rinku had been the candidates of the BJP and Congress, respectively, from Jalandhar West. The winner eventually was the AAP’s Sheetal Angrual, with Rinku finishing slightly ahead of Bhagat.

The Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll has been necessitated due to the death of sitting Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary. The Congress has fielded his wife Karamjit Kaur.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was present to welcome Bhagat into the AAP.

2022 was the second time Bhagat and Rinku took on each other from Jalandhar West. In 2017, Bhagat had lost to Rinku by over 17,000 votes, with the Congress winning a clean majority that year to form the government in the state.

Bhagat Senior has been a BJP MLA from Jalandhar West thrice (1997, 2007 and 2012), and was a minister in the Akali Dal- BJP government.

Angural, who accompanied Bhagat to Chandigarh where he joined the AAP, said that with the BJP leader crossing over, “there was no Opposition left in Jalandhar West”, and that Rinku and Bhagat were impressed by the work done by the AAP government in the last 13 months.

Beset by bad news, from Punjab to Delhi, and still smarting from its loss in the Sangrur bypoll last year, the AAP is keen to avoid a repeat in the Jalandhar bypoll. The Sangrur loss had come barely three months after the AAP had swept to power in Punjab. Besides, Sangrur was a seat vacated by Mann on becoming CM.

As senior BJP Jalandhar leaders, including Manorajan Kalia and K D Bhandari, visited him after news of Bhagat’s defection, a visibly emotional Chuni Lal said he was not aware why his son had joined the AAP. Their family was identified with the BJP, he said, adding that Bhagat might have been “swayed” by someone to cross sides.

Chuni Lal also stressed that the BJP had always given him “a lot of respect and honour”, and that in 1997, he had only managed to win Jalandhar West, then a Congress stronghold, with the support of the Scheduled Caste Bhagat community.

Bhagat and Rinku aren’t the only dynasts seeking greener pastures in the AAP. Earlier, former Congress MLA Surinder Chaudhary, the son of five-time MLA and former minister Jagjit Singh Chaudhary, and grandson of a seven-time Congress MLA, had crossed over to the ruling party.

The family has been with the Congress for over seven decades. Surinder’s aunt Karamjit Kaur is, in fact, the Congress’s candidate for the coming Jalandhar bypoll.

The AAP isn’t the only party preferred by dynasts on the hunt either. The BJP’s candidate for the coming bypoll is former Akali Dal MLA Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, whose father Charanjit Singh Atwal has been a long-time Akali Dal leader.

A former Deputy Lok Sabha Speaker, Atwal Senior contested the 2019 elections from the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat on an Akali Dal ticket, when he lost to the Congress’s Santokh Singh Chaudhary.

The Bhagat Community

One of the 39 Scheduled Caste communities in Punjab, the Bhagats make up nearly 21% of the total voters in Jalandhar West (Reserved) seat, which is part of the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency.

The community has been divided in its political loyalties, voting for either the BJP or the Congress. The AAP’s gambit seems to be that with both the former candidates of the BJP and Congress with it, the Bhagat votes will enmasse come to it.

The Bhagats are followers of Kabir Panth and the constituency has a Kabir Mandir.

Apart from the Bhagat community, the SC Ravidassia and Valmiki communities are also present in sizeable numbers in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat.