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Punjab Elections 2024: Voting for all 13 seats on June 1; Malwa belt holds key - All you need to know 

Punjab Elections 2024: Voting for all 13 seats on June 1; Malwa belt holds key - All you need to know 

While four key parties are battling it out, the main fight is expected between Congress and AAP - both part of the INDIA bloc nationally. The BJP is also a key player in some seats such as Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, and Patiala. The saffron party had won Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. 

Business Today Desk
Business Today Desk
  • Updated May 26, 2024 4:44 PM IST
Punjab Elections 2024: Voting for all 13 seats on June 1; Malwa belt holds key - All you need to know Punjab Elections 2024: While four key parties are battling it out, the main fight is expected between Congress and AAP - both part of the INDIA bloc nationally.

Lok Sabha Elections 2024: With polling almost over in parts of the country, all eyes are now on Punjab, where the Congress and AAP will be taking on each other. Voting for all 13 seats will be held in the single phase on June 1. In Punjab, a four-cornered fight is expected, with Congress, AAP, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), and the BJP in the fray.

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The AAP's campaign is spearheaded by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is out on interim bail till June 1.   

While four key parties are battling it out, the main fight is expected between Congress and AAP - both part of the INDIA bloc nationally. The BJP is also a key player in some seats such as Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, and Patiala. The saffron party had won Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. 

This time, the party, which is contesting all 13 seats, has fielded former ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu from Amritsar, and former Congress MP and Amarinder Singh's wife Preneet Kaur from Patiala.

The BJP has also fielded former Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu from Ludhiana and former AAP MP Sushil Kumar Rinku from Jalandhar. Rinku is up against former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi. Bittu is facing off against Congress state chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and Ashok Parashar Pappi of the AAP. 

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In 2019, the Congress bagged 8 seats, while 2 went to Akali Dal, 2 to BJP, and one seat to AAP.

 Punjab - Key seats   BJP  Congress   AAP 
Amritsar  Taranjit Singh Sandhu Gurjeet Singh Aujla Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal
Jalandhar  Sushil Kumar Rinku Charanjit Singh Channi Pawan Kumar Tinu 
Ludhiana Ravneet Singh Bittu  Amrinder Singh Raja Warring Ashok Parashar Pappi
Faridkot Hans Raj Hans Amarjit Kaur Sahoke Karamjit Anmol
Patiala  Preneet Kaur Dharamvir Gandhi Balbir Singh 

Former Union Minister and Akali Dal's Harsimrat Kaur Badal is contesting from Bathinda. She is up against Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu of Congress, Gurmeet Singh Khudian of AAP, and BJP's Parampal Kaur Sidhu

Malwa belt holds key in Punjab
 
Punjab can broadly be divided into three regions — Malwa, Majha, and Doaba. The Malwa belt is always considered the biggest and politically influential region, particularly during assembly elections, where if a party secures maximum assembly seats in this belt, it can easily form the government in the state. 

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Beyond the Sutlej river, it is called the Malwa region, the Doaba region falls between the Beas and Sutlej rivers, while Majha falls between the Ravi and the Beas rivers. As far as the parliamentary polls are concerned, eight seats – Ludhiana, Bathinda, Ferozepur, Faridkot (SC), Fatehgarh Sahib (SC), Patiala, Anandpur Sahib and Sangrur fall in the Malwa region. Two seats — Hoshairpur (SC) and Jalandhar (SC) - are in the Doaba region. 

The Majha region broadly comprises three parliamentary seats — Gurdaspur, Amritsar, and Khadoor Sahib. In the 2019 polls, the Congress won Ludhiana, Anandpur Sahib, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, and Faridkot from the Malwa region, and Amritsar and Khadoor Sahib in the Majha region. It also won Jalandhar which is in the Doaba region. 

However, in the 2023 by-election, AAP wrested the Jalandhar seat from the Congress. The SAD won from Bathinda and Ferozepur, which are in the Malwa region. The AAP managed to win the Sangrur seat, which is also in the Malwa belt. The BJP won the Hoshiarpur (Doaba) and Gurdaspur (Majha) seats. However, in the 2022 by-elections, SAD (Amritsar) won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat while AAP won the Jalandhar seat in the 2023 by-election. 

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The Malwa region's sway over Punjab politics can be gauged from the fact that many leaders like Parkash Singh Badal, Amarinder Singh, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Beant Singh, and Bhagwant Mann who became chief ministers of the state hailed from this belt. The Malwa belt, which has 69 of 117 assembly seats in Punjab, was the epicenter of the farmers’ agitation in 2020-21. 

In the 2022 assembly polls, the AAP swept the Malwa belt by winning 66 out of 69 seats. The Majha region is also called the 'Panthic' belt as it is home to the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The Doaba belt has a sizeable population of the scheduled caste (SC) community. The SC community constitutes around 32 per cent of Punjab's population which is the highest in the country. 

(With inputs from PTI)

Published on: May 26, 2024 4:32 PM IST
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