Despite loss, Bains managed to get major vote share from rural areas

Ludhiana: Even as Congress candidate won the Lok Sabha seat by a comfortable margin, but Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) candidate Simarjit Bains managed to get a major share of votes mostly from rural segments. Apart from this, majority of the votes the PDA candidate and Lok Insaf Party chief Simarjit Bains got were from the bastions of Atam Nagar and Ludhiana South segments.
Among the rural segments, Simarjit Bains got more votes than Congress candidate Ravneet Bittu in Gill and Dakha segments whereas in Jagraon he got less votes than Bittu. In Gill and Dakha segments, Simarjit Bains got 59,184 and 44,938 votes whereas Bittu secured 57,426 and 46,772 votes. However, in Jagraon segment, Bittu secured 46,772 votes whereas Bains got 37,689 votes.
In LIP bastions of Atam Nagar and Ludhiana South represented by Simarjit and his brother Balwinder Bains, respectively, PDA candidate secured 38,475 and 35,469 votes, respectively. On these seats, Congress candidate got 31,601 and 25,974 votes.
The PDA candidate, on the other hand, thanked the voters of Ludhiana, especially rural segments and Ludhiana (south) and Atam Nagar segments for supporting him.
“Ravneet Bittu spent 60% of the time in Atam Nagar and Ludhiana (south). But the Congress and Akali Dal faced defeat in these segments for the fourth time after witnessing defeat in 2012, 2014, 2017 and now in 2019. Even in Dakha and Gill segments they faced defeat. I thank the voters in all segments for braving the intimidation,” said Bains. He alleged that the ruling party indulged in ‘goondaism’ to win the elections and misused police force and administration officers.
PDA candidate said the Akali candidate couldn’t have even get one lakh votes had it not been for Modi wave. He added that his connect with the people and raising issues of corruption and drug trade, etc. has been appreciated by the people.
A voter, Chamkaur Singh of a village in Jagraon area, who voted for Bains said the LIP chief had been raising issues concerning the common masses and highlighting those on social media, which has made him popular.