Punjab voters appear to have preferred experienced politicians over artists and former bureaucrats as most of such candidates failed to win the electoral battle in the just concluded state Assembly elections.
Female candidates also didn't find favour with the voters. Only six managed to register a win in the Punjab Assembly results 2017 announced on Saturday.
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Of the six women elected to the Assembly, three each belong to the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). These six candidates are Razia Sultana (Congress) from Malerkotla, Aruna Chaudhary (Congress) from Dinanagar, Satkar Kaur (Congress) from Ferozepur rural, Sarabjit Kaur Manuke (AAP) from Jagraon, Rupinder Kaur Ruby (AAP) from Bathinda
rural and Baljinder Kaur (AAP) from Talwandi Sabo assembly seats.
However, in 2012, Assembly elections 14 women candidates had won.
While Aruna Chaudhary (Congress) registered a massive win of 31,917 votes, AAP candidate Rupinder Kaur Ruby won with the least margin of 10,778 votes. There were total 1,063 men and 81 women candidates in the fray while one third gender candidate in the fray.
The third gender candidate, Mumtaj of Bahujan Samaj Party (BJP) managed to get just 1,137 votes from Bucho Mandi assembly seat which was won by Congress candidate Pritam Singh.
Surprisingly, not even a single artist-turned-politician managed to register a win. AAP candidates Bhagwant Mann, Gupreet Singh Waraich and Dev Mann have lost their seats.
Congress nominees Satwinder Kaur Bitti and Mohammad Sadique are another addition to this list. In case of bureaucrats and officers, who joined politics to contest Assembly polls, just four out of 12 former officers, both military and civil, won the elections.
Eight cabinet ministers have lost, including Parkash Singh Badal’s son-in-law Adesh Partap Singh Kairon. Other
cabinet ministers are Tota Singh, Gulzar Singh Ranike, Surjit Singh Rakhra, Sikandar Singh Maluka, Janmeja Singh Sekhon, Dr Daljit Singh Cheema and Sohan Singh Thandal.
In the case of youth candidates, the Congress candidate, Devinder Singh Gubaya (25) won his Fazilka seat after defeating his BJP counterpart Surjit Kumar Jyani with just 265 votes. Likewise, another Congress candidate Angad Saini (26) from Nawanshahar defeated SAD candidate Jarnail Singh Wahid. Similarly, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring
(Congress) has defeated SAD youth candidate Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon.
On the other hand, Harjot Kaur, a young AAP candidate lost to SAD candidate Sukhwinder Kumar from Banga Assembly seat. Another AAP candidate, Samarbir Singh Sidhu, from Fazilka constituency also got defeated.
Likewise, Parambans Singh Romana, a youth SAD candidate from Faridkot constituency could not win. Whereas, the outgoing Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was the oldest winner with a margin of 22,770 votes from the Lambi assembly seat.