After bypoll wipeout, BJP stares at a tough road ahead in Punjab

BJP candidates successful Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, and Chabbewal forfeited their deposits portion successful Barnala the enactment came 3rd and it’s nominee was capable to prevention the deposit. This comes months aft the the enactment registered a blank successful the Lok Sabha polls contempt an accrued ballot stock of 18.5%, astir treble from the 2019 parliamentary polls successful which it won 2 of the state’s 13 Lok Sabha seats.

As the Lok Sabha debacle triggered calls from wrong the enactment urging it to beryllium assertive arsenic lone an improved ballot stock was not capable to triumph seats, authorities BJP president Sunil Jakhar submitted his resignation to BJP nationalist president J P Nadda, who has yet to judge it.

The BJP went into the bypolls facing the choler of farmers implicit mediocre procurement of paddy and the shortage of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), a cardinal fertiliser for Kharif crops. It had pinned its hopes connected Gidderbaha arsenic its campaigner was erstwhile authorities concern curate Manpreet Singh Badal, who won the spot arsenic a SAD campaigner successful 1995, 1997, 2002 and 2021, and was progressive successful the constituency since August. However, helium managed to canvass lone 12,227 votes.

In the Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s Faridkot campaigner Hans Raj Hans had managed to canvass 14,850 votes In the Gidderabaha conception contempt protests by farmers, showing that the enactment further mislaid crushed present since then.

“To assertion triumph implicit an accrued ballot stock is thing but a lame excuse,” a BJP person who did not privation to beryllium named told The Indian Express.

The effect successful Dera Baba Nanak was besides a daze for the BJP arsenic its campaigner Ravi Karan Kahlon, who mislaid the 2022 polls by a constrictive borderline of 466 votes connected a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) summons to Congress’s Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, managed to canvass lone 6,505 votes and forfeited his deposit. The lad of erstwhile Assembly Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon, Ravi, who switched from the SAD to the BJP successful May, had hoped that the Akali votes would consolidate successful his favour. But that failed to happen. In the Lok Sabha polls, the SAD managed to unafraid 17,099 votes present portion BJP campaigner Dinesh Babbu polled 5,981 votes.

In Chabbewal, erstwhile four-time MLA and ex-SAD curate Sohan Singh Thandal, who joined the BJP successful October, forfeited his deposit arsenic helium managed to unafraid lone 8,692 votes. In 2022, arsenic an SAD candidate, Thandal had polled 19,329 votes portion successful the caller Lok Sabha polls, the BJP’s Dilbag Rai had managed to unafraid lone 9,472 votes arsenic the SAD got 11,935 votes.

Barnala was the lone spot wherever the BJP managed to prevention its deposit arsenic its campaigner Kewal Singh Dhillon, who was progressive successful the constituency and distributed ration cards to thousands of families, polled 17,958 votes. Dhillon had joined the BJP successful June 2022 and unsuccessfully contested the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll.

In 2022, the BJP’s Dhiraj Kumar managed to canvass 9,122 votes portion successful the Lok Sabha polls, enactment campaigner Arvind Khanna secured implicit 19,000 votes and the SAD campaigner polled 5,724 votes.

“People ballot otherwise erstwhile it comes to Lok Sabha polls, Assembly polls and bypolls. As the records show, usually bypolls are won by the enactment successful power. However, we volition beryllium and introspect connected the results to illustration our aboriginal people of action,” said Punjab BJP media in-charge Vineet Joshi adjacent arsenic Badal, Dhillon and Thandal exuded assurance of a bully showing successful the 2027 Assembly polls.