Punjab Polls: Multi-Corner Contest In Phagwara
Phagwara(Punjab), Feb 4: Phagwara assembly seat is being considered as hot seat in Doaba region of Punjab. Congress has again fielded retired IAS officer and sitting MLA Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal while the Aam Aadmi Party has nominated turncoat Joginder Singh Mann, who joined the party after denial of Congress ticket, in Phagwara (reserve) assembly seat, falls under the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha constituency.
BJP has fielded its big gun Vijay Sampla, who has resigned from the post of Chairman of National Commission of Scheduled Caste, for getting the party ticket though Anita Som Parkash, wife of BJP leader and Union Minister Som Parkash, was also in the race but the rule of ‘One Family One Ticket’ stopped her to get the party’s ticket.
Since 1977 elections, Congress has registered victory from the Phagwara seat five times while the BJP won the seat four times. Political observers asserted that it would be difficult to predict the winner as it was a close contest between Congress and BJP. For two consecutive terms 2012 and 2017, Union Minister Som Parkash won the assembly election from the constituency.
However, in 2019, after winning the Lok Sabha election from Hoshiarpur seat he had to vacate the seat and Congress candidate Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal won the by-election by defeating his BJP rival Rajesh Bagha with a margin of 26116 votes.
The high-profile Phagwara (Reserve) seat is famous for being the favorite of bureaucrats for their entry into politics. Union Minister Som Parkash was a retired IAS who had served as the Deputy Commissioners of Faridkot, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar. He was elected twice as an MLA in this important constituency on a BJP ticket. After Som Parkash, the seat was won by another former IAS officer and Congress candidate Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, who served as the Deputy Commissioner at different places, apart from working as the SDM of Phagwara, before joining the politics. Now Sanyukat Samaj Morcha has fielded retired IAS officer Khushi Ram with the hope of joining the league. Interestingly, Khushi Ram had previously held the post of Deputy Commissioner in several cities of Punjab, including Hoshiarpur, Tarn Taran and Amritsar. Besides, Sanyukt Samaj Morcha’s Khushi Ram, Bahujan Samaj Party’s Punjab Chief Jasvir Singh Garhi is also in the fray as the SAD-BSP alliance candidate from this seat.
Though votes of the Congress candidate could be dented by AAP candidate Joginder Singh Mann who is a seasoned politician, the votes of BJP candidate Vijay Sampla could also be dented by supporters of Som Parkash while after the instructions of BJP High Command the union minister himself went to Returning Office to file the nominations of Sampla and himself proposed Sampla’s name but Parkash’s camp could not be seen visibly active in the support of Sampla.
SAD-BSP candidate Jasvir Singh Garhi is new for the constituency. Meanwhile, Lok Insaf Party candidate Jarnail Nangal, who is much more popular among the poor and vendors, could also be able to dent the votes of almost all candidates of four major parties.
Suspense would be uncovered only on March 10 results whereas Phagwara Assembly seat is being considered as unpredictable yet.
