For Punjab’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Saturday’s Lok Sabha bypoll victory in Jalandhar is redemption on many fronts, having lost the Lok Sabha bypoll for Sangrur in June 2022, months after winning the state Assembly. Sangrur, which was vacated by Bhagwant Mann on becoming the state Chief Minister, was won by the SAD (Amritsar) in a close contest. The verdict by over 50,000 votes in Jalandhar consolidates Mann’s position as the CM, at a time when his government has been facing several crises, especially on the law and order front. AAP candidate Sushil Kumar Rinku now becomes the party’s sole MP in the Lok Sabha. In the process, the AAP countered the expected sympathy wave for Congress candidate Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, whose husband Santokh Chaudhary was the MP on the seat when he passed away. The ruling party appears to have turned the tide by importing its candidate from the Congress. The AAP also had to duck questions by women voters of not fulfilling its promise of a Rs 1,000 per month grant to women, as well as allegations of sexual misconduct against its Food and Civil Supplies minister Lal Chand Kataruchak, a fervent appeal by slain singer Sidhu Moosewala’s father Balkaur Singh to reject AAP, besides the controversies around the Rs 45 crore renovation of Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal’s official bungalow, and some anger at the arrest of Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh. Having learnt the hard way from the Sangrur bypoll, the AAP did not leave anything to chance. CM Mann camped in the constituency and kept visiting it for over two months, meeting industrialists, visiting the local Dera Sachkhand Ballan, holding roadshows and addressing rallies. Even Kejriwal spent a day in Jalandhar. The Delhi leadership assigned its general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak for the constituency, and he diverted all party resources there. The party’s MLAs, ministers and segment in-charges were assigned 10 villages each, for a mass contact programme. Knowing that if the party lost its second Lok Sabha bypoll in a row, it would lose the optics game in just the second year of its rule, every voter was marked and contacted. Not only is the victory a redemption for the party, it is also a referendum on its policies, ahead of state-wide municipal corporation polls and next year’s Lok Sabha elections. The AAP will see it as a positive response to its “crackdown” on corruption, with the state Vigilance Bureau going after several Congress leaders, and its Aam Aadmi Clinics. What appears to have also worked is the AAP’s promise of 300 units of free power to every household. Ever since July, when the scheme was rolled out, almost 85% households have reportedly received “zero” bills. It is often said that the Doaba region goes with the ruling party, unlike Malwa (that includes Sangrur), where voters are noted for voting against the ruling dispensation. The Congress, which was eyeing to retain the seat, also put up a united show, with all leaders working in tandem. The SAD, which lost its patriarch and five-time former CM Parkash Singh Badal during campaigning, was expected to dent the AAP’s chances by bagging sympathy votes, but hardly managed to scratch the surface. An AAP leader said what they are keeping a keen watch on is the BJP, after it won in two Assembly segments, Jalandhar North and Central, surprising many. The AAP minister in-charge of its campaign in Jalandhar, Harpal Singh Cheema, said the victory was an acceptance of “Kejriwal’s governance model”. “People have liked his ‘kattar imaandaari’ and model of health and education. It is also a message against the BJP’s divisive politics,” said Cheema. Responding to the result, Rinku said: "I am thankful to Arvind Kejriwal Ji, and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for trusting me despite all other senior Party leaders and who did not move out of the constituency throughout the entire election campaign, for canvassing for me extensively.”
