Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann, a former IPS officer who had resigned in protest against Op Bluestar in 1984, had not won a single election since 1999 when he had wrested the Sangrur parliamentary seat.
Main 5 Reason Are here:-
Lack of Stability In New Government
Many voters were reportedly unhappy at the inaccessibility of the local legislators. Only four months back, voters had given all the nine Assembly seats in this parliamentary constituency to AAP. Party workers were also reportedly disgruntled with the unresponsive local leadership.
Moosewala’s death
There was a lot of anger and grief at the killing of popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala on May 29. He was shot dead days after his security cover was withdrawn by the AAP government.
The shadow of sacrilege and farmer agitation
Simranjit Mann, who was in political wilderness, gained relevance during the protests against sacrilege during the Akali-BJP rule in 2015 when he was successful in getting a sizeable number of people to attend a ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ meeting.
Weak AAP Candidate
The party fielded Gurmel Singh, a little-known sarpanch of Gharachon village from the area. Although a close confidante of the CM who had handled his Dhuri office during the Assembly elections, Gurmel paled in comparison to Bhagwant Mann himself, and could do little to reverse the anti-government angst on the issue of Moosewala’s death.
Five-cornered contest
It was arguably for the first time that Sangrur saw five parties wooing for its votes. The unsaid message was that AAP should be kept out. While Congress fielded Dalvir Goldy, who had contested against Bhagwant Mann from Dhuri in the Assembly elections, BJP fielded Kewal Dhillon.
The article is based on research of https://indianexpress.com
