Chandigarh: Even as the election verdict in Punjab sent shock waves across the country and beyond, it was less known faces that stole the show by defeating the bigwigs in the state.
One of the major upsets of the election was the massive defeat of incumbent Congress chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi from Bhadaur in the Barnala district. Channi was defeated by more than 34,000 votes by Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Labh Singh Ugoke, who runs a small mobile repair shop in the constituency.
Ugoke’s father is a driver while his mother works as a sweeper in a government school. As per his election affidavit, a 2014 Hero Honda motorcycle is all he owns.
In the run up to the election, Channi claimed to be a “gareeb ghar ka beta” (the son of a poor home) while Ugoke centred his campaign around unmasking Channi as a “fake aam aadmi (common man)”.
“This election verdict has proved beyond doubt who was actually fake and who was the real aam aadmi,” Ugoke told The Wire after his emphatic victory.
When asked “Who is the real Labh Singh,” he responded by saying that he belongs to a poor mazdoor (labourer) family from Ugoke village in Barnala district. “My father worked for years in fields as a labourer, then as a driver later. I was in sixth grade when my mother began sweeping in a village school. She still goes there everyday. As a child, I often helped her in her work as well,” he said.
He said that while he was growing up, he wanted a job in the police or armed forces. “Later, I did a course in mobile repair and opened a shop in my own village. I also did a course in plumbing with the hope of getting a decent job in Middle Eastern countries, but could not manage traveling abroad,” he added.
Fate, however, had something else in store for him. When the AAP came to Punjab in 2013, he joined the party as a volunteer. Since then, he has been working tirelessly for the party. The party eventually recognised his efforts and fielded him from Bhadaur.
When asked whether he was worried about the election outcome since he was fighting against the incumbent chief minister, Ugoke said, “Not at all. Channi had money but I had people on my side and the election outcome had proved that.”
He said his election was fought by the people of his constituency. “It is sad that traditional political parties have made elections very expensive over the years. But I am happy that people came to my support during the campaign,” he said, noting that even his motorcycle, his only possession, was bought for him by his father.
“The car in which I campaigned was my friend’s. I remember during campaigning, people came out voluntarily on their vehicles everyday and made sure that the message of AAP was spread everywhere. My victory, in a real sense, belongs to people.”
Labh Singh, speaking to The Wire while on a personal visit to Jalandhar. Photo: Kusum Arora/ The Wire.
Ever since his victory, Ugoke has emerged as a star attraction. He is often spotted clicking selfies with his people. Even AAP’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal mentioned his name in his victory speech in Delhi, saying, “You know who defeated Charanjit Singh? AAP candidate Labh Singh Ugoke who works in a mobile repair shop.”
Also read: In Punjab’s Bhadaur, Can a Mobile Phone Repair Shop Owner Take on CM Channi?
Another AAP candidate who has gained huge public attention is Jeevan Jyot Kaur, who defeated two prominent leaders in the state; the Congress’ Navjot Singh Sidhu and Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) Bikram Majithia from Amritsar East, by the margin of over 6,700 votes.
Kaur got 39,520 votes, while Sidhu and Majithia got 32,807 votes & 25,112 votes respectively.
Kaur has been a very interesting candidate. Before joining the AAP as volunteer and later becoming district urban president of the party, she was activist in her locality, promoting menstrual hygiene for women
She began a NGO, SHE, to spread awareness about sanitary pads and thus earned the name, ‘Padwoman’, in Amritsar for reaching out to thousands of poor women and informing them about menstrual hygiene. As per the NGO’s website, it is also working consistently to create a drug-free society,
In her interaction with the media after the poll result, she, too, noted that hers was a victory of the common man.
She said that only media glare made it a hot seat. Otherwise, people of the constituency had already made up their mind to vote for the AAP since they were unhappy with the traditional parties for their inaction.
“It is sad that despite being represented by the Sidhu family for long, this constituency has remained neglected. It is the least developed area in terms of civic infrastructure. My priority is to turn this constituency around,” she said.
Also read: With 85 Debutant MLAs, Punjab Witnesses the Rise of a New Political Class
David versus Goliath
Meanwhile, the electoral battle in Sangrur was no less a ‘David versus Goliath’ fight, where AAP’s first-time candidate and youth leader Narinder Kaur Bharaj, who declared assets worth Rs 24,000 in the nomination papers, was up against sitting Congress cabinet minister Vijay Inder Singla and BJP nominee and businessman, Arvind Khanna. While Singla had declared Rs 9.62 crore, Khanna owned assets worth Rs 22.77 crore.
A law graduate, a video of hers went viral during the run-up to the election in January in which she reached the sub-divisional magistrate’s office to file her papers on an Activa scooter with her mother. She went on to campaign on that very two wheeler.
During the election, Punjab chief minister-designate Bhagwant Mann referred to her by saying, “She first does her household chores before going for her election campaign.”
AAP’s CM face Bhagwant Mann named Narinder Kaur Bharaj (pictured) as an example of the ‘ordinary women candidates’ the party is fielding in Punjab. Photo: Facebook/NarinderKBharaj.
Despite the tough competition, she got over 74,000 votes, winning the constituency by the huge margin of 36,430 votes over her Congress heavyweight rival Singla. BJP candidate Khanna was reduced to mere a 13,000 votes.
After her victory, Bharaj told the media that the verdict was unbelievable. “People voted for us with an open heart. Now that people have put their huge faith in us, we will ensure that the Delhi model of governance is implemented in Punjab. Schools and hospitals will get maximum priority,” she added.
Another major upset in the election was the defeat of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal from Jalalabad, a constituency he has never lost ever since he first contested from there in 2009. However, riding on the AAP wave, Congress turncoat Jagdeep Kamboj, who joined AAP last year, defeated Badal by nearly 31,000 votes.
Kamboj, who left Congress three years ago after being denied a ticket, fought independently in the 2019 bypoll but did not manage to get more than 5,000 votes. His victory is a reflection of the deeply entrenched anger against traditional parties in the state; an anger did not spare important leaders either.
It is this very reason which led to the defeat of Sukhbir’s father and SAD patriarch, Parkash Singh Badal. Badal lost to AAP’s Gurmeet Singh Khudian by 11,396 votes. This was a humiliating defeat for the senior Badal, who has lost just once only in his 75-year political career. Now 94-years-old, his political career seems to be drawing to a close.
Khudian himself is the son of former MP Jagdev Singh Khudian and is another Congress turncoat who joined AAP last year after feeling like he was being side-lined by the party.
Incumbent chief minister Channi also contested from Chamkaur Sahib, however, we was defeated from there as well, this time by his namesake; AAP candidate Charanjit Singh, a 55-year-old and a doctor by profession.
Charanjit Singh was handpicked by AAP in 2016 and had contested against Channi in the last election too; however, he had lost by over 12,000 votes. However, he continued to work in the constituency and managed to defeat the Channi by 7,942 votes this time around.
This opportunity also came about since Channi’s nephew was caught, before the elections, in an illegal sand mining case and, alleging Channi’s involvement in the same, Charanjit Singh made the controversy the focal point of his campaign.
Also read: Punjab: In Channi’s Constituency, Rivals Target Him Over Illegal Mining, Poor Education
Another AAP giant killer in this election was former SAD leader Ajitpal Singh Kohli, who did the hugely difficult task of defeating former chief minister Amarinder Singh from his Patiala pocket-borough.
While he is a former mayor of the city, he was not a heavyweight candidate when he joined AAP just before the elections.
