Amid landslide Punjab win, AAP gains in Dalit stronghold Doaba too; Congress keeps nine seats

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The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) entered the Punjab assembly for the first time from here after a gap of two decades with a seat. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and an independent also won one seat each.

In Doaba, an area that lies between the Beas Satluj rivers, there are four districts — Jalandhar (9 seats), Hoshiarpur (7 seats), Kapurthala (4 seats) and Nawanshahr (3 seats).

The Congress had made a comeback in Doaba in 2017 after a decade by winning 15 of the 23 seats and they later secured two more in bypolls. This time, it retained four out of the eight reserved constituencies — Chabbewal in Hoshiarpur, Adampur and Phillaur in Jalandhar and Phagwara in Kapurthala. Three other reserved seats — Chaurasi, Jalandhar West and Kartarpur (in Jalandhar) — went to the AAP while the Banga one went to the SAD.

The Congress won five out of nine seats in Jalandhar, one out of seven in Hoshiarpur, three out of four in Kapurthala and none in Nawanshahr. In 2017, it had won five, two, two and six respectively in Jalandhar, Nawanshahr, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur.

The BSP’s win from Nawanshahr was the first time the party tasted success in the region after 1997 when Shingara Ram Sahungra had won from Garhshankar constituency in Hoshiarpur.

In the past, the SAD-BJP alliance formed the government in Punjab in 2007 and 2012, winning 16 and 17 out of the 23 seats respectively from the region. In 2002, the Congress won 17 out of the 25 seats here.

“The AAP, which was not having much of a ground here till a couple of months before the election has got a lot of support from the common people as well as the Dalits here a few weeks before the elections which made the party leader quite upbeat here despite a series of dissidents over ticket distribution,” said an AAP leader.

“In urban areas, the allegation about the AAP’s links with radicals did not stop the voters from voting for the party,” said an AAP leader.

In Jalandhar’s urban area, AAP won two out of the four seats (Jalandhar Central and Jalandhar West) and in Hoshiarpur, it won the Hoshiarpur Urban seat.

Both the AAP and the Congress had promised several welfare schemes for the Dalits in the region.