If parallels are to be drawn between the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll and the ongoing IPL, the role of the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Sushil Kumar Rinku and Kolkata Knight Riders player Rinku Singh in getting their teams the much-needed victories can be an interesting analogy. Rinku Singh smashed five towering sixes to win the game, and in the process, completely overshadowed the hat-trick of Gujarat Titan’s spinner Rashid Khan. On his part, Sushil Kumar Rinku has routed the opponent trio of the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the BJP in Jalandhar. In the byeelection, necessitated by the demise of Congress leader Santokh Singh Chaudhary during the Punjab leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in January, The Indian Express takes a look at what the AAP victory means for the Congress, SAD and the BJP. For Congress Congress leaders in the state stand to lose a lot given the fact that the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat has traditionally been a party stronghold. The results have put a question mark on Amrinder Singh Raja Warring as Punjab Congress chief and Partap Singh Bajwa as leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. It has also put the much-touted popularity of Sidhu, who shares a good equation with Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, under the scanner. A disgruntled Sidhu, after serving his sentence in a road rage case dating back to 1988, had extensively campaigned in the bypoll. Earlier, after being allegedly sidelined for the post of the CM, he had also gone public to warn the party high command that he will not be a ‘darshani ghora’ (a sort of showpiece) as a star campaigner. Warring and Bajwa also stand to lose face after the poll results. For Akali Dal Going by the poll results, the Akali Dal has hit another low as it struggles to remain in political relevance following back-to-back defeats after it was relegated to only three seats in 2022 as compared to 15 in 2017 in the 117-member Punjab Vidhan Sabha. The rout of the over-100-year-old party in the bypoll comes in the backdrop of Akali supremo Parkash Singh Badal’s demise in the run-up to the election and the fact that the Akali patriarch had introduced a slew of measures for the upliftment of people belonging to the Scheduled Caste community. For BJP The saffron party tried hard as it went solo after snapping ties with the SAD over three farm laws which were repealed after protests by farmers. The BJP had a go at Sikh outreach with the central leadership camping and campaigning in Jalandhar. The party also fielded Sikh Dalit candidate Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal. What next The Jalandhar bypoll result may put Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Badal’s leadership under a question mark once again as earlier too veteran party leaders have questioned his abilities to lead the party. The results may prompt SAD and BJP to reconsider a political alliance. For Congress, it will depend on how the party high command reacts to the result.
