Arun Jaitley was defeated from 7 of 9 Assembly segments; Jaitley’s defeat hit Bikram Majithia’s image

Amritsar, Punjab (May 17, 2014): What seemed to be a close fight before polling turned out to be a one-sided contest with Congress candidate Amarinder Singh registering an win by a margin of more than 1 lakh votes. BJP’s Arun Jaitly was defeated from seven of the total nine Assembly segments of the constituency.

Almost half of Amrinder Singh’s winning margin came from Amritsar East, the Assembly segment represented by former MP Navjot Sidhu’s wife, Dr Navjot Kaur, and Amritsar West. The latter is represented by Joshi.

A news reported by The Tribune has concluded that “the Sidhu-Joshi factor played a major role in Aurn Jaitley’s defeat”.

Arun Jaitley lost to Amarinder ingh by 32,198 votes form Amritsar East while he trailed by 18,726 votes from Amritsar North. Sidhu had kept away from Jaitley’s election campaign because of his tussle with the SAD leadership.

Navjot Sindhu’s wife too did not canvass for Jaitley in the SAD-held municipal wards of her segment on the plea that Badal Dal councillors had boycotted her in the past.

According to The Tribune, people’s anger against Anil Joshi over property tax and the rising sand and gravel prices was evident from the fact that most BJP councillors in Joshi’s Assembly segment could not secure a lead for Jaitley from their wards.

In the Majitha Assembly segment, the home turf of Bikram Majithia, Arun Jaitley got a lead of 20,651 votes.

This is a huge drop as Majithia’s winning margin in the 2012 Assembly elections was more than 47,000 votes.

Amarinder Singh during his election campaign repeatedly targeted Bikram Majithia on the issue of drugs and made a concerted effort to make inroads into the Majitha segment.

“Jaitley’s defeat may hit Majithia’s image as ‘Majhe da Jarnail’ (General of Majha)” The Tribune notes.

Amarinder Singh got the maximum lead of 36,957 from Amritsar West. He won from all urban segments. In Amritsar South, which is represented by SAD legislator Inderbir Bolaria, he had a lead of 21,897 votes.

Amarinder Singh won from Attari and Ajnala and lost in Rajasansi and Majitha. He won by 9,940 votes from Attari, the stronghold of Cabinet Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike. He had a lead of 356 votes from the Ajnala segment represented by SAD’s Amarpal Singh Bony. Unlike the 2009 poll when Congress’ OP Soni had led in the urban segments by 44,000 votes but had lost in the rural areas, Amarinder made further inroads into the urban segments, tripling the party lead to over 1.25 lakh votes.