By Jag Mohan Thaken
CHANDIGARH: Aam Aadmi Party has succeeded in retaining its Tarn Taran assembly seat by defeating the Shiromani Akali Dal by a margin of 12091 votes. AAP candidate Harmeet Singh Sandhu got 42649 votes and SAD candidate got 30558 votes. Third position was captured by the Independent Mandeep Singh Khalsa ((19620 votes), Indian National Congress got 15078 votes, whereas the BJP got 6239 votes. BJP has improved its base as in 2022 elections it had to be satisfied with only 1176 votes, which were just 8 votes more than the votes of NOTA (1168 votes).
Now AAP’s winning candidate, Harmeet Singh Sandhu, before 2017, represented the Tarn Taran seat, as Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate, continuously for three terms in 2002, 2007 and 2012. Now in this by poll -2025, Harmeet Singh Sandhu has fought the election as AAP candidate.
Arvind Kejriwal, AAP supremo, stating the win as the victory of workers, tweeted, “This historic victory in the Tarn Taran by-election has made it clear that the people of Punjab prefer the politics of work and the honest leadership of Bhagwant Mann ji. Punjab has once again expressed its trust in AAP. This victory is the victory of the people, the victory of every hard-working worker. Many congratulations to the people of Punjab and all the workers.”
Manish Sisodia, Punjab Incharge, Aam Aadmi Party, overwhelmed with the election results, said, “Congratulations to all the volunteers and leaders of Aam Aadmi Party on winning the by-election of Tarn Taran. The people of Tarn Taran have once again stamped the works of Aam Aadmi Party and have rejected the politics of Akali Dal, Congress and BJP”.
In the Assembly by polls held on 11th November, 60.95% votes (192838) were polled to decide the fate of 15 candidates in the poll fray. Out of these 15 candidates, Harmeet Singh Sandhu (Aam Aadmi Party), Sukhwinder Kaur (Shiromani Akali Dal), Mandeep Singh Khalsa (Independent), Karanbir Singh (Indian National Congress) and Harjit Singh Sandhu (Bharatiya Janata Party) were the major fighters.
Tarn Taran Bypoll was necessitated due to the death of its representative, Kashmir Singh Sohal (AAP), in June this year and this seat fell vacant in Punjab Assembly. In the 2022 elections, Sohal got 52935 (40.45%) votes and won the seat by defeating Shiromani Akali Dal candidate, Harmeet Singh Sandhu, with a margin of 13588 votes. Indian National Congress candidate, Dharambir Agnihotri, got 26535 votes and remained third. BJP was nowhere in the competition with any political party and it was just in the fray to compete with NOTA. BJP candidate’s score (1176 votes) was just 8 votes up from NOTA (1168 votes), proving that BJP was nowhere in the serious contenders.
In 2017, Dharambir Agnihotri won this seat as INC candidate. Agnihotri defeated the incumbent Harmeet Singh Sandhu of Shiromani Akali Dal by a margin of 14,629 votes. This was the first time that a candidate from the Congress party won from Tarn Taran constituency in around 40 years. Dharambir, as being reported, was the first Hindu candidate to win an election from Tarn Taran constituency.
The Tarn Taran Bypoll was a litmus test for the Punjab governing Aam Aadmi Party and it has taken this election as ‘Do or Die’.
Commenting over the Tarn Taran election result, Shiromani Akali Dal supremo, Sukhbir Singh Badal said, “First of all, I sincerely thank and congratulate all the intelligent and courageous voters of Tarn Taran Sahib for their unparalleled courage in confronting the blind government dictatorship and the brutality of the Punjab Police and for giving a befitting reply to their oppression, violence and greed for money.”
Badal added, “Khalsa Panth and Punjab will always be indebted to the voters of Tarn Taran Sahib for their unprecedented traditional determination and courage in voting for the Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Bibi Sukhwinder Kaur Ji Randhawa. I am also deeply grateful to all the fighting workers and leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal who stood firm against the blind misuse of power by the government bureaucracy and the Punjab Police and worked fearlessly and with full dedication day and night for the success of the party, the Panth and the candidate of Punjab.
Thanks to the love of the brave voters of Tarn Taran Sahib, this election result has turned out to be an unprecedented moral victory for the Shiromani Akali Dal.” (IPA Service)
