Chandigarh: Patiala’s sitting MP and BJP candidate Preneet Kaur failed to retain her seat, as she came third behind Congress’s Dharamvira Gandhi and AAP’s Punjab minister Balbir Singh.
Gandhi’s win in this prestigious constituency was the second time that a commoner has vanquished the erstwhile royalty in Patiala. In fact, it was Gandhi who had defeated Kaur in the 2014 parliamentary elections as the AAP candidate.
The Congress candidate defeated his nearest contender Balbir Singh by a margin of 14,831 votes. While Gandhi secured 3,05,616 votes, Balbir 2,90,785 votes and Kaur 2,88,998 votes.
Preneet Kaur, 79, is a former Union minister and wife of former chief minister and scion of the Patiala royal family Amarinder Singh. The Patiala royals shifted from the Congress to the BJP in the two years. Kaur’s defeat is likely to cast a shadow on their future in BJP. Their daughter Jai Inder Kaur is in charge of the women’s wing in Punjab.
Similarly, Balbir Singh’s defeat is a thumbs down to the ruling AAP led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann which has failed these vital “mid-term exams” in other constituencies as well. Balbir Singh is the health minister of the state.
Shiromani Akali Dal candidate N.K. Sharma came in fourth, securing 1,53,978 votes. A real estate developer, Sharma has been MLA from Dera Bassi twice. The failure of the Akali to stitch up an alliance with the BJP cost them this seat. The combined share of SAD and BJP on this seat is more than that of the winning candidate.
Gandhi’s victory has put a stamp of approval on the Congress’s choice of candidate as he helped the party retain Its hold on Patiala despite the exit of the Patiala royals from the party.
Gandhi left AAP in 2015 and had been contesting elections forming his own political outfit but remained unsuccessful. A philanthropist and cardiologist from Patiala, Gandhi is a household name in Patiala. The 73-year-old cardiologist is known to charge only Rs 20 per patient for consultancy and has served thousands of poor patients in Patiala and nearby villages.
A social activist, Gandhi was jailed in 1977 while participating in an anti-Emergency protest. He also spent two months in slums of Ludhiana to study diseases afflicting labourers.
He joined AAP during the India Against Corruption movement led by social activist Anna Hazare in 2011. He campaigned for the Aam Aadmi Party during the 2013 Delhi elections. In 2014, he contested the parliamentary elections as the AAP candidate from Patiala and won with a margin of over 20,000 votes defeating Preneet Kaur.
But, barely a year in Parliament, Gandhi was suspended by the AAP after he criticised the ‘dictatorial attitude’ of Arvind Kejriwal for removing people like Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav from the party. Gandhi utilised 98 percent of MPLADS fund, the highest among parliamentarians. He focused on creating common cremation grounds apart from other development works.
For the 2017 assembly elections, Gandhi created his own party Punjab Front. The Punjab front was a conglomerate of small outfits that came together to pose as the fourth front in Punjab against the Shiromani Akali Dal, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. Gandhi fielded 15 candidates but all of whom lost.
Two years on, Gandhi floated the Nawan Punjab Party and contested again from the Patiala parliamentary seat but lost there. Since then, he has been active on social media as a voice critical of the AAP government’s works in Punjab.
(Edited by Tony Rai)