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Journalism of Courage
The Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat has historically been a Congress bastion, with the party winning the seat 15 times across 20 elections, including three bypolls, since 1952. However, the landscape shifted dramatically in the 2023 by-elections, when the Congress’s Karamjit Kaur was defeated by Congress MLA-turned-Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Sushil Rinku.
In the coming elections, on June 1, Rinku is contesting from the SC-reserved seat as a BJP candidate, while the Congress has put in the ring Charanjit Singh Channi, the former Chief Minister who remains the only Dalit to have headed the top post in a state where the Scheduled Castes form the largest chunk of the population.
Kaur, meanwhile, is also in the BJP now, having crossed over after the Congress denied her the ticket from Jalandhar. Kaur had been fielded in the 2023 bypoll after her husband Chaudhary Santokh Singh, the sitting Congress MP from Jalandhar, died soon after he had participated in Rahul Gandhi’s first Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Although Chaudhary’s family has been active in the Congress for decades, of late, they have been facing opposition from the Dalit community, who at 39% are the largest block of voters in the constituency. Dalit leaders feel they have been deprived of ticket opportunities with the family cornering them.
The decision to field Channi, originally from Ropar district, hence has not been opposed by any local Congress leader, barring Chaudhary’s son Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary — who sought the ticket for his mother or another family member — and former Congress state chief Mohinder Singh Kaypee, who defected to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and is now its candidate.
Besides the BJP and SAD, Channi is also facing formidable candidates from the AAP and BSP.
Channi’s poll pitch is development and fighting drug addiction. Early in the campaign, he said, “In Jalandhar, drugs were flourishing under leaders of our party who are now in the BJP. From the time I brought up the issue, narcotics are regularly being seized. Only an impartial probe can expose how this illegal trade thrives here.” Promising to end addiction, he added, “I want to develop Jalandhar as a medical hub, and open the Wagah border so that people from Pakistan can drive here for medical treatment.”
Channi will also count on the fact that even in the 2022 Assembly polls swept by the AAP, the Congress had won five of the nine Assembly segments falling under the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat.
However, the 2023 bypoll will loom large, as it was read as a result of voter dissatisfaction with the late Congress MP, who allegedly put all his focus on the Phillaur Assembly segment, from where his son Vikramjit is the MLA (currently suspended by the Congress).
With Rinku now in the BJP, the AAP has fielded Pawan Kumar Tinu, who in turn is a former SAD MLA. In a campaign that has resonated with some voters, Tinu has been saying, “The AAP has brought real development in the state. I’m promising more mohalla clinics, thousands of jobs, and free power. Already, 83% of subscribers in Punjab are getting ‘zero’ bills.”
Rinku is counting on the BJP’s stronger performance in urban areas in the state, where it focused during its long alliance with the SAD, though how it does given it is the first election after the break-up remains a test. Rinku tells The Indian Express: “I want to develop Jalandhar on the lines of India’s unprecedented development under the Narendra Modi government.”
On his frequent party hopping, he says: “I joined the AAP (from the Congress) last year to resolve Jalandhar’s problems with roads, garbage, etc, and joined the BJP this year because the AAP government failed to do so.”
The BSP too can’t be completely ruled out on the seat as it still has a committed cadre. However, over the years, a majority of its core Dalit vote is seen to have moved to other parties.
