Punjab bypolls: In Chabbewal, AAP secures resounding victory, gets highest ever vote share of 60.9%

After his win, Dr Ishank expressed gratitude to the voters. “I americium profoundly thankful to the radical who person placed their spot successful me. Now, it is my work to repay that spot with dedicated service,” helium said.

Dr Ishank got 60.9 per cent ballot stock of the full polled votes astatine 85,177. Only 53.43 per cent of voting took place, the lowest since 1977 barring 1992 erstwhile the SAD boycotted the elections during the highest coercion period, successful the Chabbewal Assembly seat. Dr Ishank Kumar maintained a accordant pb passim each 15 rounds of ballot counting.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal campaigned for Dr Ishank Kumar, and emphasised with an AAP MP already representing Hoshiarpur, electing the party’s campaigner would guarantee unmatched improvement successful the region.

Although this was Dr Ishank’s archetypal election, helium is not caller to politics. For implicit a decade, helium has been actively progressive successful campaigning for his father, and is well-acquainted with the constituency’s issues. Dr Ishank besides benefited from the goodwill generated by his father’s enactment successful the country implicit the past 2 elections.

Two-way contention successful Chabbewal

The contention successful Chabbewal was chiefly a two-way conflict betwixt AAP and Congress, arsenic the BJP has minimal power successful this agrarian constituency, and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chose to enactment retired of the race.

Three Independent candidates contested the bypolls alongside those from the 3 large governmental parties. Collectively, the Independents secured less votes than the NOTA (None of the Above) option, nether which 884 votes were polled.

In the past, successful 1977 and 1980 erstwhile the SAD’s Kartar Singh got 58.63 per cent and 55.90 per cent ballot share, respectively, which was the highest ever. Until 2007, the Assembly constituency was known arsenic Mahilpur and aft delimitation it became Chabbewal.

The Chabbewal spot was won by the Congress enactment successful the 2017 and 2022 Assembly elections erstwhile Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal, begetter of Dr Ishank, contested and won. However, Dr Raj Kumar defected to the AAP earlier the caller Lok Sabha elections, prompting the by-election. He past contested from the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha spot connected an AAP summons and emerged victorious.

In the Lok Sabha elections, the AAP performed powerfully successful the Chabbewal Assembly conception of the Hoshiarpur parliamentary seat, maintaining a pb implicit Congress and the SAD.

For Congress campaigner Advocate Ranjit Kumar, with implicit 2 decades of governmental experience, this was his 2nd election, having earlier contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Hoshiarpur arsenic a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate. Kumar, the Hoshiarpur District Bar Association president, was hoping to get BSP votes.

Kumar was perceived arsenic an outsider successful the Chabbewal constituency, arsenic helium had ne'er been actively progressive successful section affairs. This cognition was compounded by absorption from section Congress leaders who were moving successful the country and were hoping to unafraid the enactment summons themselves.

Kumar began his governmental vocation with the BSP successful 2002, becoming its authorities wide caput successful 2020. He besides served arsenic a nominated subordinate of the Bar Council of Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh, and is simply a trustee of the Ambedkar Bhawan Trust, Jalandhar. His information arsenic the BSP campaigner for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections came arsenic a astonishment owed to last-minute changes successful the party’s campaigner list.

For the Chabbewal bypolls, helium softly joined Congress and secured the ticket, outpacing different hopefuls specified arsenic Kulvinder Singh Rasulpuri. Kumar’s run centred connected tackling cause abuse, improving instrumentality and order, and criticising the ruling AAP authorities for its alleged failures.

On the different hand, the BJP’s Sohan Singh Thandal is simply a seasoned person and erstwhile SAD minister. However, his chances successful the bypolls were considered slim, arsenic Chabbewal is simply a predominantly agrarian constituency wherever the BJP has a negligible base, though SAD had historically been strong.

Thandal served arsenic a four-time MLA from Chabbewal betwixt 1997 and 2012 and contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections arsenic a SAD campaigner from Hoshiarpur. He precocious switched to the BJP up of the Chabbewal bypolls. During his campaign, Thandal criticised the ruling AAP authorities for its alleged inability to code farmers’ issues and highlighted mediocre instrumentality and bid nether its administration. He besides pointed to a deficiency of meaningful improvement successful the state.