Chandigarh: The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday won three of the four assembly seats – Gidderbaha, Chabbewal and Dera Baba Nanak – while the main opposition Congress snatched the Barnala seat from it.
The bypolls to all these four seats – necessitated after the incumbent MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha in June this year – were held on November 20, last.
The AAP nominee Gurdeep Singh Randhawa bagged the Dera Baba Nanak seat defeating Congress’ Jatinder Kaur by a margin of 5,699 votes. While the AAP’s Randhawa got 59,104 votes, Congress’ Kaur secured 53,405 votes, the BJP’s Ravi Karan Kahlon finished a poor third with only 6,505 votes.
Dera Baba Nanak seat had been a citadel of Congress and its Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa – who was recently elected to Lok Sabha from Gurdaspur seat– represented it four times – 2002, 2012, 2017 and 2022.
The Chabbewal seat was won by AAP’s Ishank Kumar who defeated Congress’ Ranjit Kumar by a margin of 28,690 votes. While Ishank, a doctor by profession, secured 51,904 votes, Ranjit got 23,214 votes and BJP’s Sohan Singh Thandal finished a distant third with 8,692 votes.
Chabbewal was also represented by Raj Kumar Chabbewal, who is father of Ishank, and who was a Congress MLA in 2017 and 2022, but had joined AAP before the Lok Sabha polls and got elected to Lok Sabha from Hoshiarpur.
In Gidderbaha, AAP’s Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon trounced Congress’ Amrita Warring, wife of Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, by 21,969 votes. The BJP’s candidate and former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal lost his deposit. While Dhillon got 71,644 votes, Amrita 49,675 votes, Manpreet could get only 12,227 votes. Raja Warring was recently elected to Lok Sabha from Ludhiana seat.
The Congress candidate Kuldeep Singh Dhillon snatched the Barnala seat from AAP defeating its Harinder Singh Dhaliwal by a margin of 2,157 votes.
Unlike the other three seats – where the fight was primarily between AAP and Congress -, Barnala seat saw a multi-corner contest in which Dhillon polled 28,254 votes, Dhaliwal, 26,097 votes, the BJP’s Kewal Singh Dhillon got 17,958 votes while independent candidate Gurdeep Singh Batth, secured 16,899 votes and Shirom. Akali Dal (Amritsar) nominee Govind Singh Sandhu, polled 7,900 votes.
The Barnala seat was represented by AAP leader Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer in 2017 and 2022. He was also elected to Lok Sabha from Sangrur seat.
