Chandigarh: Voting in the bypolls to Punjab’s four seats remained largely peaceful on Wednesday barring a minor clash between the workers of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the main opposition party Congress in Dera Baba Nanak segment in Gurdaspur district.
The bypolls to Dera Baba Nanak, Gidderbaha, Chabbewal (SC) and Barnala assembly seats were necessitated after the then sitting MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha, earlier this year.
While Gidderbaha seat recorded the highest 79% polling, Dera Baba Nanak recorded 60%, Barnala, 53% and the Chabbewal seat recorded about 49% till around 5 pm.
However, a clash between the ruling AAP and the Congress workers was reported from the Dera Baba Nanak segment which was diffused by the police.
While the bypolls are being seen as a critical test for the chief minister Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government’s two-and-half-year tenure in the backdrop of its poor show in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when it could win only three of total 13 parliamentary seats.
Stakes are also high for the main opposition Congress which had won seven seats in the June Lok Sabha polls – while AAP had won three – even as the wives of party chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and senior leader Sukhjinder Randhawa, both of whom are MPs now – are in the fray from their seats – Gidderbaha and Dera Baba Nanak.
The BJP is also hoping to spring a surprise in the bypolls after it drew a blank in the Lok Sabha polls though it had managed to double its vote share – from 9.63% to 18.56% in that election.
It may be recalled that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had decided not to fight these bypolls after party chief Sukhbir Badal was declared “tankhaiya’’ (guilty of religious misconduct) for the “mistakes’’ committed by his party and government from 2007 and 2017.
Currently, in the House of 117 members, AAP has 91 MLAs, the Congress has 15, the SAD, three, BJP two and the BSP has one legislator.
