Here’s What Went Wrong for Party

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The party in the run-up to the polls tried to put up a façade of unity with leaders like former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi (above) and former state unit president Navjot Singh Sidhu campaigning alongside the top state leadership. (Twitter @CHARANJITCHANNI)

The battle was being seen as a prelude to next year’s general elections but the bypoll result indicates that the party is still to find favour with the voters after anti-incumbency swept it out of power last year

The Congress failed to stop its downslide in Punjab with a third successive defeat in a major electoral battle since last year’s assembly elections after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) wrested the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat on Saturday. The opposition party’s candidate lost by a margin of over 58,000 votes.

The battle was being seen as a prelude to next year’s general elections but the bypoll result indicates that the party is still to find favour with the voters after anti-incumbency swept it out of power last year. The party in the run-up to the polls tried to put up a façade of unity with leaders like former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and former state unit president Navjot Singh Sidhu campaigning alongside the top state leadership but failed to retain its stronghold which it had been winning since 1999. Worse, for the party, the continued poll debacles have triggered fears of more defections.

What also didn’t help was the absence of senior party leaders from Delhi during electioneering even as AAP unleashed its top brass including chief minister Bhagwant Mann and party convener Arvind Kejriwal during campaigning.

Also, the choice of candidate is being blamed for the loss as it was felt that there was anti-incumbency against the party.

“Giving the ticket to the widow of Santokh Chaudhary wasn’t a good idea. There was a lot of anti-incumbency against him,” a leader admitted.

Some leaders claimed that there were other factors, adding that the division of Scheduled Caste votes between SAD-BSP, BJP, and Congress impacted the party majorly. While the Mazhabi Sikh voters picked BJP candidate Inder Iqbal Atwal, SAD-BSP nominee Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi rode on the Bahujan Samaj Party vote bank among the Ravidasias. Both factors ate into the Congress’s traditional vote base, maintained leaders.

Leader of opposition Partap Bajwa said there will be introspection. “I thank all party workers for putting on a united show and fighting the election till the very end. We are introspecting on the reasons behind the poll results. We will come back stronger in the 2024 general elections,” he said.

What was more embarrassing for the party was that none of its MLAs in the five assembly segments of Adampur, Jalandhar Cantt, Jalandhar (North), Phillaur, and Shahkot could register a win in their respective areas. These MLAs had won in the 2022 assembly elections despite the wave against the Congress.

Swati BhanSwati Bhan, Contributing Editor, News 18, has a journalistic career spanning over two decades. She has previously worked with The Indian Express, The …Read More



Source: www.news18.com

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