Navjot Singh Sidhu vs Bikram Singh Majithia: Who Will Win The Majha Votes In Hot Seat Of Amritsar East?

Punjab will go to the polls on February 20 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10. 

New Delhi: In what could be one of the hottest political battles in Punjab Assembly polls 2022 especially in the Majha region, Punjab Pradesh Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu will take on former state minister and senior Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia from Amritsar (East). Falling under the Amritsar Lok Sabha Constituency, the Vidhan Sabha seat is considered Sidhu’s bastion. Amritsar East Assembly Constituency is scheduled to go into the polls on February 20, 2022 (Sunday). In the Punjab Assembly Election 2017, Navjot Singh Sidhu won from the Amritsar East constituency from Congress’ ticket by defeating BJP’s Rajesh Kumar Honey with a margin of 42,809 votes. At number three was Aam Aadmi Party’s Sarabjot Singh Dhanjal secured 14725.

2017 Assembly Poll Results

Key Candidates

In this election, Navjot Singh Sidhu is fighting not just to secure his seat, but also for his Punjab model for which he has run-ins with his own party colleagues. Sidhu has been demanding action against Majithia in the drugs case and had put his own government on pedestrian over delays in filing an FIR and his arrest.

Meanwhile, BJP has fielded retired IAS officer Jagmohan Singh Raju from Amritsar East. Raju, who is posted as Chief Resident Commissioner to Tamil Nadu Government, sought voluntary retirement from the IAS on January 25. AAP on the other hand fielded a female candidate Jeeven Jyot Kaur from the seat.

Panthic politics of Majha region

Amritsar falls in the Majha region of Punjab that is adjacent to the International Border with Pakistan. It is often said that politics of the region runs Punjab. The region that consist of four border districts– Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, and Pathankot– is the centre of Sikh panthic (religious) politics. Though the region only account for 25 of the 117 seats in the Punjab Assembly, but have played a dominant role in the state’s electoral fate.

In the Majha region, Amritsar particularity holds great prestigious value for all parties, but especially SAD, as it is home to the Akal Takht and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. It is credited for helping SAD wrestle the power from Congress, at the time led by Capt Amarinder Singh, and form the government in 2007.

Majithia, who is known as  “Majhe da jarnail” (the general of Majha) within SAD, is a three-time MLA from Majitha, the neighboring constituency. It is believed that by fielding his brother-in-law Majitha against Sidhu, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal is trying to send a strong political message in a constituency considered to be one of the important centres of Panthic politics.

Change in demographics of the seat

The Amritsar East used to be bastion of veteran like Jan Sangh’s Baldev Prakash and Congress’ Gian Chand Kharbanda till 1970s, before it ceased to exist in 1972. But by the time it back to existence in 2012 assembly election, the demographics of the seat changed it was not longer a Sikh dominated seat. As per the 2011 census, Amritsar has 49.36 percent of  Hindus population while Sikhs are 48 percent.

Before it ceased to exist after 1972, the Amritsar East seat used to be the bastion of veteran leaders like Jan Sangh’s Baldev Prakash and Congress’ Gian Chand Kharbanda in the 1960s and 1970s. But locals say the seat, which came back into being in 2012, is hugely different from what existed in the 1960s and 1970s, with much of the earlier areas now falling under Amritsar Central. Of the five assembly seats in the region, only Amritsar South has clear Sikh majority, while Amritsar North and Central have a clear Hindu majority. East and West are mixed bags.

Because of this reason, SAD had been allotting majority of the seats in the district to it erstwhile ally, the BJP and only contesting from Amritsar South.

In the two post-delimitation elections – 2012 and 2017 – Sidhus have won from the seat. In 2012, Navjot Kaur Sidhu won the seat from BJP’s ticket, and in 2017, her husband won the polls from Congress’ ticket. 

Battle Punjab

Punjab will go to the polls on February 20 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10.