Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Mohinder Bhagat scored a landslide victory in the 2024 Jalandhar West bye-elections, crushing Congress’ Surinder Kaur and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Sheetal Angural with a huge margin, taking 58% of the total votes. However, this result is quite different from the one at the end of the Lok Sabha elections a month ago. AAP trailed at third place while BJP and Congress were in a tight battle for victory, before Channi stormed ahead, securing the victory with a significant margin. However, the story was different this time as BJP’s Sheetal Angural was at second place with 17,921 votes and Congress was third with Surinder Kaur’s 16,757 votes. AAP massively benefited from Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann taking point in the election campaign by staying in Jalandhar. Along with that, here are 10 major reasons why AAP won in Jalandhar West, despite placing third in the Lok Sabha polls:
Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann's decision to monitor AAP's campaign for Jalandhar West Bye Election gave big results. Apart from monitoring & getting involved in the election campaign, Bhagwant Mann's decision to shift his bases to Jalandhar from Chandigarh turned out to be a masterstroke as it won the trust of the people.
Bhagwant Mann's wife and sister also helped him out. Mann's sister and wife, Dr. Gurpreet Kaur have visited people door-to-door and had discussions over their issues. They have also visited slum areas of Jalandhar West so that all sections of society of the constituency remains under the observation of the State Government.
Elected MLA Mohinder Bhagat also upholds a clean and reputable image in the constituency, earning the trust the people. He is also the son of ex-BJP Minister Chunni Lal Bhagat, who holds significant influence in the area and was actively supporting his son.
CM Mann conducted multiple roadshows for Mohinder Bhagat with people attending in large numbers with hopes that AAP will deliver the plethora of promises it is making to the voters. Punjab Chief Minister left no stone unturned, be it meeting with industrialists or addressing the grievances of the common people.
CM Mann has also promised to turn Jalandhar West into a hub of medical tourism. Mann said that for one it will take our medical and health sector to new levels and two, it will give our NRI community a chance to get treatment near their homes. Mann said that now the south has medical tourism in India, but the AAP government of Punjab has big plans for the health sector.
Bhagwant Mann also held a meeting with the top 100 industrialists of Jalandhar and Punjab. CM Mann hosted the industrialists at his Jalandhar bungalow and also ate with them. Punjab CM also held one-to-one talks with the industrialists and even addressed them together. As per the information received, CM Mann held serious talks with sports industrialists.
AAP had made several promises to the people of Jalandhar West which they believed in. These included new and big sewerage treatment projects, removal of Wariana garbage dumps, street lights on every corner, specialist doctors in clinics, CCTVs on every corner etc.
One major fact was also failure of the opposition. BJP had fielded Sheetal Angural following his departure from AAP to contest the elections. Sheetal had been elected MLA when he contested on the AAP ticket however, his shift to BJP cost him dearly as it did to Sushil Rinku, who lost the LS polls to Congress’ Charanjit Singh Channi. Following the defeat in Punjab, BJP’s high command had also lost faith in the polls, and therefore decided to step back from aggressively campaigning in Jalandhar West.
A similar folly could also be observed in Congress’ approach as the significant support enjoyed by Channi failed to bear fruit in the bye-polls as the leaders did not campaign aggressively for their candidate. Congress led the LS polls by a significant margin however lost all their ground in the bye-polls, coming third.
The CM pulled out all the stops to aggressively campaign for Mohinder Bhagat in the constituency. He rented a house in Jalandhar to fully focus on the task at hand with minimum distractions and was given valuable help from his family. His wife, Dr. Gurpreet Kaur and his sister were hands on with the task of addressing the people in the absence of the CM, which played a valuable part in earning the trust of the voters.