CHANDIGARH: The May 10, 2023, Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-poll. It is defection time for disgruntled elements. Hence, the by-poll is more or less turning to be a battle of turncoats.
On Friday, BJP's Mohinder Lal Bhagat from Jalandhar (West) constituency crossed over to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Bhagat is the son of BJP leader and former cabinet minister Chunni Lal Bhagat.
BJP has announced Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal as its candidate for the Jalandhar by-poll. Atwal, a former Shiromani Akali Dal MLA and son of former deputy lok sabha speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, recently joined the BJP. Atwal entry into BJP was instrumental in Bhagat's exit from the party.
Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal won the assembly elections in 2002 from Koomkalan but lost twice in the 2007 and 2017 polls. While his father Charanjit Atwal, who remained the deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009 and twice speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sabha unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Jalandhar constituency against Santokh Singh Chaudhary of the Congress.
Former congress MLA Sushil Kumar Rinku joined the AAP a few days ago in the presence of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal. The very next day he was named as party’s candidate for this by-poll. Also, former SAD MLA from Jalandhar (Cantonment) Jagbir Brar had few days back joined AAP.
Another former Congress MLA from Kartarpur Chaudhary Surinder Singh joined AAP. Surinder is the son of late Congress minister and five-time MLA Chaudhary Jagjit Singh. While his grandfather, Master Gurbanta Singh, was a seven-time MLA, and his uncle Santokh Chaudhary was twice MP. Now he will campaign against his own aunt and Congress candidate Karamjit Kaur wife of late Santokh Chaudhary.
While the Congress was the first to announce its candidate as the grand old party named Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, wife of a late member of parliament Santokh Singh Chaudhary, whose death during Bharat Joro Yatra of Rahul Gandhi on January 14 necessitated this Lok Sabha by-election.
Also, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance has fielded a sitting SAD MLA from Banga Dr Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi as its candidate.
Lok Sabha Elections 2019
Santokh Singh Chaudhary of Congress 3,85,721 votes
Charanjit Singh Atwal of SAD-BJP 3,66,221 votes
Justice Jora Singh (retired) of AAP 25,467 votes
Balwinder Kumar of BSP 2.04 lakh votes