Why Captain Amarinder Singh remains the most favoured face in Punjab politics
It was an unusually frenzied campaign given that the assembly by-election in Shahkot was being held just a little over a year after Captain Amarinder Singh led the Congress to a comfortable victory in March 2017.
Allegations and complaints flew thick and fast with both the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Aam Aadmi Party crying foul to the Election Commission over the alleged misuse of government machinery by the ruling Congress. But things really got ugly after the local SHO in Shahkot registered an FIR against the Congress candidate Hardev Singh Laddi.
The case was filed on a private complaint alleging that Laddi was involved in illegal sand mining. It got even murkier when it was indicated that the SHO in question was in touch with senior opposition politicians a day before he booked the Congress man.
But when the results were declared on May 31, Laddi trounced his closest SAD rival by close to 40,000 votes! He had literally stormed and occupied what had been an Akali bastion for the past five assembly elections. The last time the Congress won Shahkot was in 1992, and that was when the SAD boycotted the polls.
That said Shahkot is really Amarinder’s victory. Unlike the disillusionment with Yogi Adityanath’s government (which was formed around the same time as Punjab) in Uttar Pradesh that was reflected in the defeat of the BJP in Kairana as well as Gorakhpur and Phulpur before that, Shahkot clearly shows that the Captain remains the most favoured face in Punjab.
This, in fact, is the second big by-poll victory since he assumed office. Earlier this year, the party snatched the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat from the BJP. It also won all four municipal corporation elections in the state.
And Shahkot has made Amarinder’s government stronger. With 78 legislators, the ruling Congress now commands a two-thirds in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, while the SAD stands reduced to an ignoble 14 assembly seats. And while the AAP is still at its assembly election tally of 20 MLAs, the Shahkot results could not have been more embarrassing for the party. AAP’s nominee Rattan Singh lost his deposit polling a miserable 1,900 votes.
The Congress’s campaign in Shahkot, which suffered an early setback when Laddi was booked in the illegal sand mining case, was rescued and run like clockwork, by Sukhbinder Sarkaria, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Randhawa and Gurpreet Singh Kangar — all cabinet ministers considered close to the chief minister. Former power minister Rana Gurjit Singh, who is widely viewed as Laddi’s mentor, infused a measure of aggression that left both the SAD and the AAP gasping.
In the end, this victory has reaffirmed Amarinder Singh’s position as the undisputed leader of the Congress party in Punjab. It will also serve to silence some voices of dissent following the recent expansion of the state council of ministers, where a number of left out legislators made a beeline for Delhi with complaints for Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
(Courtesy of Mail Today)