The Congress once again established itself in Punjab’s Malwa region, which holds the key in state’s politics as the grand old party won four Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 general elections.
The party won from Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala Lok Sabha constituencies, which are part of the Malwa belt in Punjab, as per the Election Commission (EC) data.
The victories from Ludhiana and Patiala seats were significant as the Congress managed to secure its stronghold in these constituencies from where the BJP fielded Ravneet Singh Bittu and Preneet Kaur, who were earlier with the grand old party.
In the Malwa region, the AAP secured victories in two seats — Anandpur Sahib and Sangrur — and the Sukhbir Singh Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) could win Bathinda seat.
Independent candidate Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, who is the son of the one of two assassins of former prime minister Indira Gandhi, won from the Faridkot reserve constituency.
The Malwa belt in Punjab is always considered as the biggest and politically influential region. It broadly comprises eight seats — Ludhiana, Bathinda, Ferozepur, Faridkot (SC), Fatehgarh Sahib (SC), Patiala, Anandpur Sahib and Sangrur.
The Malwa region has 69 assembly seats out of 117 constituencies in the state.
In the Doaba region, the Congress won Jalandhar reserve parliamentary constituency from where former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi defeated BJP’s Sushil Rinku by a comfortable margin of 1.75 lakh votes.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won Hoshiarpur reserve seat, which is part of the Doaba region.
The BJP failed to retain the Hoshiarpur seat which was considered its citadel.
AAP candidate Raj Kumar Chabbewal defeated Congress party’s Yamini Gomar from Hoshiarpur.
The Doaba region has a sizable population of the Scheduled Caste community.
As far as the Majha region is concerned, the Congress won the Amritsar and Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituencies.
Congress candidate and former deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa trounced BJP’s Dinesh Babbu from Gurdaspur.
Radical preacher Amritpal Singh, who is lodged in a jail in Assam, won from the Khadoor Sahib seat with a massive margin of 1.97 lakh votes.
The Khadoor Sahib constituency, which is known as a ’Panthic’ seat, has voters from all three regions — Majha, Malwa and Doaba. It has nine assembly segments — Jandiala, Tarn Taran, Khem Karan, Patti, Khadoor Sahib, Baba Bakala, Kapurthala, Sultanpur Lodhi and Zira.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress dealt a body blow to the ruling AAP and the opposition BJP and SAD, winning seven of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the high-stakes polls in Punjab even as two Independents registered a surprise victory.
While the AAP clinched three seats, the SAD could win only one seat and the BJP drew a blank in the border state.
In 2019, the Congress bagged eight of the 13 Lok Sabha seats.
The SAD and the BJP, then fighting as allies, won two seats each. The Aam Aadmi Party got just the Sangrur seat then.
Following the Sangrur and Jalandhar bypolls in 2022 and 2023, the Congress was left with seven seats while the SAD and BJP had two each and AAP and SAD (Amritsar) one each.
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