Nearly seven months after winning the Assembly elections, the Congress recorded another stomping victory in Punjab on Sunday as it wrested the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat from the BJP with a record margin of 1.93 lakh votes. The by-election was necessitated after actor and four-time MP Vinod Khanna's death in April this year.
Dismissing charges of being an outsider in Gurdaspur, Punjab Congress Chief Sunil Jakhar, a former three-time MLA from Abohar, got 4.99 lakh votes, defeating his nearest rival, BJP's Swaran Salaria, who had been preferred over Khanna's wife Kavita Khanna.
Gurdaspur had become a prestige battle for the Congress and the BJP, with both going all out to pass the first electoral test after the state elections held in February. The BJP had represented the seat since 1998 — except in 2009 — when Khanna was first elected as MP, till his death.
Continuing its downslide after the Assembly elections, Aam Aadmi Party's Maj General (retd) Suresh Khajuria lost his security deposit with 23,579 votes, and alleged that there was booth capturing and EVMs were tampered with.
Out of the nine Assembly segments in Gurdaspur, four are considered to be BJP dominated, while five are with its ally SAD. Gurdaspur had witnessed a dismal turnout of 56 per cent in the elections held on October 11, down from 70 per cent in 2014.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh hailed the victory as a total rejection of "anti-people policies" of the BJP and said it indicated the total failure of the party at Centre.
"The times are changing. Recent victories in student elections in universities and Maharashtra civic polls clearly indicate that Congress is on its path of revival," said Amarinder, asserting that major impacts of GST and demonetisation are being felt by people and the factors will be at play in the upcoming Himachal Pradesh elections.
Jakhar, who swept all nine segments of the constituency to record the highest margin in Gurdaspur, said the saffron party must now read the writing on the wall.
Highlighting that the crushing defeat will mark the beginning of dissolution of the Akali-BJP alliance in the state as people have expressed their anguish, Jakhar said, "People have rejected BJP and also shown the mirror to their ally, the Akalis. BJP will soon realise that Akali is nothing less than a burden in the state. It was already relegated to the third place in assembly elections", he said.
With the victory coming days before the election of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi as the party Chief, Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Siddhu said the victory was "Diwali's gift to Rahul Gandhi". "We have sent a beautiful Diwali gift to our would-be president Rahul Gandhi. This win will be a big slap on the face of Akali Dal, and BJP will realise that it's nothing but an albatross around their neck," said Siddhu, a former BJP MP from Amritsar who had joined Congress in January.
With most of Gurdaspur falling under urban areas, there was underlying resentment among people against GST and demonetisation. The SAD-BJP prospects were also marred with the recent allegations against senior Akali leader and former Cabinet Minister Sucha Singh Langah who was booked for sexually exploiting a widow a few days before the election.
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