Veteran Congressman Sunil Jakhar’s emphatic victory in the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll was occasion enough for the Congress to talk about revival after the electoral rout in 2014 even as India’s grand old party was preparing the ground for a change of guard at the helm. Jakhar, who is the chief of Punjab Congress and had been leader of opposition when the SAD-BJP allianc was in power in the state, trounced BJP’s Swaran Salaria by 1,93,219 votes – he polled 4,99,752 votes while Salaria polled 3,06,533. The Aam Aadmi Party’s Major General (Retd) Suresh Khajuria came a poor third with 23,579 votes.

The Congress party had said during in the course of the campaign that the Gurdaspur results would be a referendum on the Narendra Modi government’s functioning. "The BJP must read the writing on the wall now," Jakhar said after his emphatic win. "People have rejected the BJP and also shown a mirror to (BJP ally) the Akalis," he said.

The victory signalled an early Diwali for the Congress. As Jakhar pulled away from the rest of the field at the end of the first round of counting, indicating he was heading for a big win, Congress workers gathered at the party office in Gurdaspur and Chandigarh and began celebrations. More celebrations were held in Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar.

Diwali gift

The results are significant as it was test for the Congress party’s Amarinder Singh government in the state, and drew immediate reactions all round – among them from state minister Navjot Singh Sindhu, a former BJP MP from Amritsar. Sidhu said, "We have sent a beautiful Diwali gift packed with red ribbon to our would-be President Rahul Gandhi because it sets the tone...It will be a shot in the arm for the Congress."

The larger Congress alliance had another reason to cheer on Sunday. The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a key partner in the Congress-led UDF opposition in Kerala, retained the Vengara Assembly seat by defeating the CPI(M) in a by-poll. IUML’s KNA Khader won the seat with a margin of 23,310 votes over P.P. Basheer of the CPI(M). BJP candidate K. Jayachandran Master – one of the most senior leaders of the BJP in Kerala – secured 5,728 votes.

Just three months into the term of the government – after the Congress returned to power and the Shorimani Akali Dal had been pushed to third place in the assembly elections earlier this year – it was hit by the sand-mining scam involving state minister Rana Gurjit. On Sunday, after registering a big victory in the fight for the prestigious Lok Sabha seat, which had been held by the late Vinod Khanna of the BJP, Jakhar took a swipe at Shiromani Akali Dal’s Sukhbir Singh Badal, who had said the Gurdaspur bypolls will be a referendum on the six-month-old Congress government. "Now, Sukhbir will have to eat his words. Where will the Akalis go and hide their faces now, people have reaffirmed their faith in the leadership of Amarinder Singh and at the same time expressed anguish at the NDA government led by Narendra Modi," Jakhar said. For the record, Khanna won the Gurdaspur seat in 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014.

Akali disintegration

About Badal, Jakhar further said, "Now, I think this (Gurdaspur win of Congress) will be the beginning of disintegration of SAD because nobody has seen Parkash Singh Badal for the last six months. The new leadership under Sukhbir Singh Badal is on the verge of disintegration. I think the entire SAD is going to be reformed under some new leadership, I believe.”

The Punjab chief minister said it was a victory for his government’s development agenda. "Congratulations to @sunilkjakhar ji for his impressive win in #Gurdaspur bypoll, it's a victory for @INCPunjab policies & development agenda," Capt Amarinder Singh tweeted. He added, "The massive win for Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar shows the people's complete denunciation of the corrupt and immoral BJP and SAD." It also underlined the "political annihilation" of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the state, he observed.

"This (victory) is a big slap on the face of 'jija -saala' (SAD chief Sukhbir Badal and Bikram Singh Majithia). Today BJP will realise that Akali Dal in Punjab has become a burden. Time and again people have reprimanded them. It will be demoralising and send them (SAD-BJP) packing," said Sidhu.

Meanwhile, both the BJP and the AAP accused the Congress of misusing official machinery to win the bypoll. Punjab BJP secretary Vineet Joshi alleged that the Congress misused the official machinery in the election. AAP candidate Maj. Gen. (Retd) Suresh Khajuria also accused the Congress of using "undemocratic means" in the bypoll. However, none of the parties provided details to back their allegations.

The Punjab chief minister retaliated by saying, "Both the BJP-SAD and AAP had stooped to the lowest levels in their brazen attempts to mislead the people with their false propaganda against the Congress government…It was evident that these parties failed to learn their lessons despite the fact that such cheap tactics did not succeed in voting them to power in the Assembly polls earlier this year.”