BATTLE FOR JALANDHAR

On April 17, amid thousands of workers from across north India beating dhols and singing some signature revolutionary songs, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann led his starstudded caravan to file the nomination papers of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Sushil Kumar Rinku for the bypolls to the Jalandhar parliamentary seat on May 10.

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

Accompanying him were Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Mittal, state finance minister Harpal Cheema, local MLAs Sheetal Aungral, Balkar Singh, Inderjeet Mann and Raman Arora alongside two trophy recruits— Mohinder Bhagat, formerly of the BJP, and Jagbir Brar, who is ex-Akali Dal. All this, to project themselves as the dominant player in the constituency. Both AAP and Mann are desperate to restore the sheen of their spectacular win in 2022, which has been marred in some measure by the impression that Arvind Kejriwal is ruling by proxy, that Mann’s governance is ineffective and he is unable to control the spiralling radicalisation. The Amritpal Singh saga, in particular, has not left the administration covered in glory.

Jalandhar is a reserved constituency for Dalits, where the bypoll has been necessitated by the demise of the two-time Lok Sabha member Chaudhary Santokh Singh in January. Traditionally a Congress bastion, the party has lost the seat just four times, twice each to Akali Dal and the Janata Dal. In the 2022 state elections, amid the AAP wave, the Congress managed to win five of the nine assembly segments in Jalandhar, while the AAP won four. This time, the Congress has fielded Santokh’s widow Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, who is seeking the sympathy vote for her departed husband. The party is backing her fully, both to retain the seat as well as in the hope that it could lay the foundation for its revival in the state. Pratap Singh Bajwa, the leader of the Opposition in the assembly, is anchoring the campaign.