Punjab bypolls: Gidderbaha a cakewalk for AAP’s Dhillon, thanks to Akali cadre’s backing
Gidderbaha, which five-time Punjab chief minister late Parkash Singh Badal represented for a record five terms from 1969-1985 and later went to his nephew Manpreet Singh Badal from 1995-2007, is considered an Akali bastion. But for the last three terms, the seat had gone to the Congress.
For Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, the timely switch to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is a gamble that paid off, especially since his old party Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) decided to sit out the election, helping him consolidate the Akali support base in his favour.
Fifty-seven-year-old Dhillon had joined the AAP less than three months ago, ending his three-decade long association with the SAD. Gidderbaha, which five-time chief minister late Parkash Singh Badal represented for a record five terms from 1969-1985 and later went to his nephew Manpreet Singh Badal from 1995-2007, is considered an Akali bastion. But for the last three terms, the seat had gone to the Congress.
“With the SAD deciding to sit out the election, the party cadre decided to side with Dhillon, who had previously served as the party’s Gidderbaha halqa in-charge, as they did not want to vote for the Congress in view of ideological differences,” an Akali leader from Muktsar said. Only a marginal section of the SAD voted for the BJP candidate Manpreet Singh Badal.
Election commission data shows that in the 2022 assembly polls, Dhillon polled 49,649 votes as an Akali candidate, while the AAP secured 38,881 votes. This time, as an AAP candidate, Dhillon secured 71,644 votes, accounting for 56% of the total votes polled.
Akali supporters added that Gidderbaha became a cakewalk for the AAP, as the electorate hoped Dhillon would push development works with the support of the government.
How other parties fared
Congress candidate, Amrita Warring, contested her maiden election, and her husband, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, the Ludhiana MP and president of the Punjab unit of the party, led an aggressive campaign to retain the seat, which he had won thrice. Addressing the media, Raja Warring said the SAD votes went to the AAP candidate.
“We thought the BJP (Manpreet) would get 25,000 votes, but it only got around 12,000 votes. The AAP got around 71,000 votes and the reason for this was that the entire Akali Dal vote was diverted to AAP,” Warring said.
The BJP tried to test waters for the first time by fielding four-time legislator from Gidderbaha, Manpreet Singh Badal. Political observers say Manpreet was believed to have strong clout among a large section of the electorate due to the development works he had undertaken in Gidderbaha, but this did not translate into votes.
He could secure only 12,227 votes, fewer than the votes the saffron party polled from Gidderbaha in the Lok Sabha polls this year.
“In his campaigning, Manpreet tried to strike an emotional chord by citing his proximity to ‘taya’ (late Parkash Singh Badal). However, his image as a party hopper and shifting from Gidderbaha to Bathinda Urban seems to have gone against him. Contrary to the expectation, he hardly received any support from the Akalis or BJP cadre,” a political observer said
