Ex-Babus or Netas —Who Have An Edge in Bureaucrats’ Choice Phagwara?

Phagwara: While Congress has entrusted the sitting MLA Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, a retired IAS officer from the seat, the Aam Aadmi Party has nominated the grand old party's turncoat Joginder Singh Maan.

New Delhi: Situated in Kapurthala district, the Phagwara Vidhan Sabha seat of Punjab falls under the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha constituency. Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal of the Indian National Congress is the sitting MLA of the constituency which is reserved for scheduled castes (SCs). As per the Election Commission data, the Phagwara assembly constituency has 1,51,668 registered voters, including 79,782 males and 71,886 females.

Lithmus Test For BJP, Congress 

Both Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress have equal chances to emerge victorious from Phagwara assembly seat. Since 1977 elections, Congress has registered victory from the Phagwara seat five times, while the Bharatiya Janata Pary has won the seat four times.  Political observers also asserted that it would be difficult to predict the winner as it was a close contest between Congress and BJP. For two consecutive terms 2012, and 2017, Union Minister Som Parkash won the Vidhan Sabha election from the constituency. However, in 2019, after winning the Lok Sabha election from Hoshiarpur seat he had to vacate the seat. Following this, by-polls were necessitated the results of which came in favour of Congress’ Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal.  Dhaliwal had won the seat by defeating Rajesh Bagha of Bharatiya Janata Party with a margin of 26116 votes.

The high-profile Phagwara Constituency (Reserve) is famous for being the favorite of bureaucrats (mostly IAS officers) for their entry into politics. Union Minister Som Parkash was a retired IAS (Retd.) who had served as the Deputy Commissioner of Faridkot, Hoshiarpur, and Jalandhar. Parkash was elected twice as an MLA in this important constituency on a BJP ticket before vacating in 2019.

After Parkash, the seat was won by Congress candidate Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, also a former IAS. Before joining politics in the year 2019, Dhaliwal also served as the Deputy Commissioner at different places, apart from working as the SDM of Phagwara. Now SSM has filed Khushi Ram with the hope of joining the league.

The BJP, on the other hand, fielded its former MP from Hoshiarpur and Dalit leader Vijay Sampla from the Phagwara assembly constituency. To contest in the polls, Sampla vacated the post of chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes after his candidature came under a cloud. He holds a strong political influence in the region and is being backed by party colleague and former MLA from the seat Som Parkash.

Key Candidates in Fray This Year

While Congress has entrusted the sitting MLA Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, a retired IAS officer from the seat, the Aam Aadmi Party has nominated the grand old party’s turncoat Joginder Singh Maan. The Bharatiya Janata Party, on the other hand, has fielded former union minister and ex-chairman of the national commission of scheduled caste Vijay Sampla to reclaim the seat. Besides, Sanyukt Samaj Morcha’s Khushi Ram and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Punjab Chief Jasvir Singh Garhi are also in the fray from the Vidhan Sabha seat. Interestingly, Khushi Ram had previously held the post of Deputy Commissioner in several cities of Punjab, including Hoshiarpur, Tarn Taran, and Amritsar.

2017 Assembly Election Results 

Candidate’s Name	Party	Level	Votes	Vote Rate %	Margin
Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal	INC	Winner	49,215	47.62%	26,116
Rajesh Bagha	BJP	Runner Up	23,099	22.35%
Bhagwan Dass	BSP	3rd	15,990	15.47%
Jarnail Nangal	Lok Insaaf Party	4th	9,088	8.79%
Santosh Kumar Gogi	AAAP	5th	2,910	2.82%
Nota	None of the Above	6th	966	0.93%
Neetu	IND	7th	706	0.68%
Charanjit Kumar	Peoples Party of India (Democratic)	8th	545	0.53%
Paramjot Kaur Gill	Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)(Simranjit Singh Man	9th	485	0.47%
Sonu Kumar	Vishal Party of India	10th	340	0.33%

Who Rules Amritsar West Over The Years

Year	Candidate’s Name Party Level Votes Vote Rate % Margin
2019 – By Election	Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal INC Winner 49,215 47.62% 26,116 Rajesh Bagha BJP Runner Up 23,099 22.35%
2017	Som Parkash BJP Winner 45,479 35.02% 2,009 Joginder Singh Mann INC Runner Up 43,470 33.48%
2012	Som Parkash BJP Winner 46,223 41% 14,579 Balbir Kumar Sodhi INC Runner Up 31,644 28%
2007	Swarna Ram BJP Winner 47,906 47% 9,604 Joginder Singh Mann INC Runner Up 38,302 37%
2002	Joginder Singh INC Winner 31,601 36% 1,186 Swarna Ram BJP Runner Up 30,415 35%
1997	Swarna Ram BJP Winner 50,176 52% 26,623 Joginder Singh Mann INC Runner Up 23,553 24%
1992	Joginder Singh Mann INC Winner 14,363 35% 720 Swarna Ram BJP Runner Up 13,643 33%
1985	Joginder Singh INC Winner 33,287 46% 11,863 Sadhu Ram JNP Runner Up 21,424 30%
1980	Piara Ram Dhanowalia INC(I) Winner 27,845 48% 1,589 Sadhu Ram JNP(JP) Runner Up 26,256 45%
1977	Sadhu Ram JNP Winner 25,042 50% 4,710 Piara Ram Dhanowalia INC Runner Up 20,332 40%

Full schedule for Punjab Assembly Polls

• Issue of notification: January 21
• Last date of notification: January 28
• Scrutiny of nomination: January 29
• Last date of withdrawal of candidature: January 31
• Date of poll:  February 20
• Counting of votes: March 10