3-cornered contest likely in bypolls to 4 Assembly seats in Pb

Bye-elections to four Assembly seats in Punjab is likely to witness a three-cornered fight among the AAP, the SAD-BJP combine and the ruling Congress which is looking to maintain its winning momentum in the state.

Bypolls in Phagwara, Jalalabad, Dakha and Mukerian Assembly seats will be held in on October 21 and the results will be declared on October 24.

Punjab was the only state that had bucked the pro-Narendra Modi trend seen across northern and central India in the 2019 general elections. The Congress had won eight out of the 13 parliamentary seats in the state.

In the 117-member Punjab Assembly, the Congress has 77 legislators, the Shiromani Akali Dal 13 MLA while the strength of AAP in the House is 19. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Lok Insaaf Party have two MLAs each.

The SAD will field its candidates from Jalalabad and Dakha seats while its alliance partner BJP will fight from Phagwara and Mukerian seats.

Congress will go to people seeking votes while highlighting the implementation of its flagship programmes like farm debt waiver, employment generation, drug eradication, health insurance to 42 lakh families, among others.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had recently claimed that of the 161 promises made by his party in the last Assembly election, 140 have been implemented and the rest are in the process of execution.

The opposition Aam Aadmi Party and the SAD-BJP will look the corner the Congress over its "unfulfilled" poll promises such as distribution of free smart mobile phones to the state's youth among others.

Phagwara and Jalalabad seats had fallen vacant after sitting MLAs Som Parkash and Sukhbir Singh Badal were elected to the Lok Sabha from Hoshiarpur and Ferozepur parliamentary constituencies, respectively, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Dakha seat got vacant after former AAP legislator and noted Supreme Court lawyer H S Phoolka's resignation was accepted by the Punjab assembly Speaker last month.

He had resigned as an MLA in October last year over the Congress government's alleged failure to take action against those who were involved in 2015 sacrilege of religious scriptures. The Mukerian seat fell vacant with the death of Congress legislator Rajnish Kumar Babbi last month.