AMRITSAR: Former Punjab Cabinet Minister and MLA S. Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal has termed the official election results announced by the Election Commission for the Tarn Taran Assembly bypoll — in which Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate S. Harmeet Singh Sandhu registered an impressive victory by 12, 091 votes — as a clear referendum by the voters endorsing the nearly four-year performance of the AAP government led by Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann.
He stated that the record-breaking public support reflects approval for the government’s delivery in key areas such as quality healthcare services, the educational revolution, 600 units of free electricity, communal harmony, strengthening of law and order, and decisive action against gangsters and drug traffickers for building a vibrant and peaceful Punjab. He called the bypoll result a “referendum” and a “semifinal victory” ahead of the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections.
Dhaliwal was speaking to the media after attending a simple yet significant event organized to distribute compensation to flood-affected farmers.
Calling his analysis logical, Dhaliwal said that during the election campaign, the Congress, BJP, Akali Dal and other opposition parties appealed to voters to treat this by-election as a referendum against the Mann Government’s four-year tenure and as a semifinal before the 2027 Assembly elections, urging them to give a verdict in favour of their respective candidates.
However, the voters reaffirmed their trust in the government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann. They not only caused the forfeiture of the security deposits of Congress and BJP candidates but also defeated the candidate of Akali Dal (Badal) and other Akali factions with a heavy margin, pushing them to the sidelines. The voters, Dhaliwal said, have given a clear indication that in the 2027 elections too, the Aam Aadmi Party government under the leadership of Party Supremo Shri Arvind Kejriwal and Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann is set to return to power.