Chandigarh: The bugle has been sounded for the by-election in Punjab’s Tarn Taran Assembly seat. The by-election is scheduled to be held on November 11th. The results will be announced after the counting of votes on November 14th. The Aam Aadmi Party, BJP, Congress, and Shiromani Akali Dal have already announced the names of their candidates for this seat. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the party of jailed Khalistani Amritpal Singh also announced its candidate.
It is noteworthy that the by-election for the Tarn Taran seat is being held following the death of Aam Aadmi Party MLA Dr. Kashmir Singh Sohal. Following this, the Akali Dal (Akali Dal) Waris Punjab, the party of Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, who is currently in Dibrugarh jail in Assam under the National Security Act (NSA), has nominated Mandeep Singh, brother of Sandeep Singh Sunny, accused of murdering Amritsar Hindu leader Sudhir Suri.
The brother of Mandeep Singh, the candidate nominated by Waris Punjab Dey, is accused of murdering a Hindu leader. In November 2022, Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri was shot dead in public in Amritsar. He was shot while he was staging a sit-in protest outside the Gopal Mandir on Majitha Road. Suri and his supporters were protesting against the desecration of broken idols of Hindu deities. That’s when the accused, Sandeep Singh Sunny, shot him. Investigations revealed that Sunny was influenced by Amritpal Singh and, following his ideology, murdered Suri.
Sunny is currently in jail. Following Amritpal Singh’s announcement that he would contest the Lok Sabha elections from Khadoor Sahib, who is currently in Dibrugarh jail, efforts were made to field Sunny as an independent candidate from the Amritsar seat. However, only Amritpal contested the election and won by a record margin.
Amritpal Singh contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate from the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat and won with over 400,000 votes, defeating candidates from major parties like the AAP, Congress, the Akali Dal, and the BJP. The Tarn Taran Assembly seat is one of the nine assembly seats falling under the Khadoor Sahib parliamentary constituency. Encouraged by the widespread public support Amritpal Singh received in this area, the organization has now decided to contest the assembly by-election as well. Here, Amritpal Singh’s party could split the Panthic vote and harm other parties. In this situation, the Akali Dal, Punjab’s largest Panthic party, could suffer the most.
Political parties are gearing up, and all parties are working hard to win the Tarn Taran election. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Harmeet Singh Sandhu for this border belt seat. Sandhu served as an MLA in 2002, 2007, and 2012. He won twice as a member of the SAD and once as an independent. He lost in 2017 and 2022. The Congress has fielded farmer leader Karanbir Singh Burj. In 2017, Congress’s Dr. Dharambir Agnihotri won this seat. The Shiromani Akali Dal has nominated Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa as its candidate. The BJP has nominated Harjeet Singh Sandhu for the by-election. Sandhu joined the Youth Akali Dal in 2007 and later joined the BJP before the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections.
