Malvinder gives AAP its maiden victory in Anandpur Sahib
Kang, who is also the party’s state spokesperson, defeated Singla, a former state cabinet minister despite trailing in the initial rounds; The AAP leader shed the “outsider” to bag 3,13,217 votes across against Vijay Inder Singla’s 3,02,371
Aam Aadmi Party candidate Malvinder Singh Kang edged his Congress rival Vijay Inder Singla with a margin of 10,846 votes to clinch the Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha seat in a closely contested battle.
Kang, who is also the party’s state spokesperson, defeated Singla, a former state cabinet minister despite trailing in the initial rounds.
The AAP leader shed the “outsider” to bag 3,13,217 votes across against Singla’s 3,02,371.
Kang, who was contesting his first Lok Sabha delivered a big win for the AAP, which had failed to win the Anandpur Sahib seat in its last two attempts. While the party’s 2019 candidate Narinder Singh Shergill mustered a paltry 53,052 votes, the 2014 candidate, Himmat Singh Shergill, had polled 3,06,008 votes but failed to win.
Kang secured leads from Garhshankar, Banga, Nawanshahr, Anandpur Sahib and Rupnagar whereas Singla secured leads from Balachaur, Chamkaur Sahib, Kharar and Mohali. He went to pay obeisance at the Naina Devi shrine after being declared the winner.
Meanwhile, Subhash Sharma of the Bharatiya Janata Party came in third with 1,86,578 votes. His presence in the contest is believed to have played spoilsport for Singla, who would have otherwise been able to consolidate the Hindu votes better.
Sharma secured 40,391 votes and 36,001 votes in Kharar and Mohali respectively, and another 34,471 in Anandpur Sahib.
“I contested to win, but poor performance by the SAD candidate led to Kang’s victory as he bagged the Sikh votes, while Hindu votes got divided between Congress and BJP,” Sharma said.
Meanwhile, 6,402 electors rejected all the candidates and opted for None of the above (NOTA) in an election that had 28 candidates, including 13 independents.
Former Anandpur Sahib MP and SAD candidate Prem Singh Chandumajra failed to make an impact, garnering only 1,17,936 votes, down from the 3,81,161 votes he had secured in 2019 elections.
A joint BJP-SAD candidate, Chandumajra, had lost to Congress’ Manish Tewari by 46,884 votes. Tewari had bagged 4,27,955 votes, 39.57%, to race ahead of Chandumajra and Shergill.
Notably, no party has won the Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha constituency twice in a row in the last seven elections.
The 2014 Lok Sabha election had seen Chandumajra, who was contesting on an SAD ticket, defeat Congress’ candidate Ambika Soni with a margin of 23,697. Chandumajra had secured 3,47,394 votes with a 31.64% vote share, while Soni garnered 3,23,697 votes, making up for 29.77% of the votes. AAP’s Shergill had also pulled a significant 3,06,008 votes.
The seat was held by Congress’ Ravneet Singh Bittu prior to that, with the leader having beaten SAD’s Daljit Singh Cheema in a more comfortable win with a margin of 67,204 votes in 2009. Bittu had bagged 4,04,836 votes, achieving a 44.73% vote share, while Cheema had 337,632 votes to his name, accounting for 37.3%.
Tourism, connectivity on Kang’s mind
“I am grateful to the people of Anandpur Sahib for giving me a chance to serve them. My top priorities will be improving international flight connectivity from Mohali airport, boosting tourism across Anandpur Sahib, besides enhancing health and education infrastructure in the state. Another priority will be to bring funds for Punjab from the central government,” Kang said after winning the election.
