About a week after Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan accepted the resignation of Jalandhar West MLA Sheetal Angural, Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C on Monday informed that byelection will be held on July 10 for the reserve seat. The Election Commission of India on Monday released the election program regarding the byelection to a total of 13 assembly segments across seven states.
With the announcement of the by-election to one assembly segment, the model code of conduct (MCC) has come into effect in the Jalandhar West constituency from June 10, and will remain in place until the election process is completed on July 15. Notably, the MCC, implemented in view of the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab on June 1, was only lifted the past week.
The Jalandhar West seat became vacant following the resignation of Sheetal Angural, elected MLA as the member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who has since joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of polls. Angural on Monday criticized the Punjab Government upon the announcement of the by-election, pointing out that while five seats require by-elections, only Jalandhar West is being contested. He accused the State Government of selective approval of resignations, claiming that the strategy revealed the Government’s underlying policies.
Angural, who had joined BJP alongside former AAP MP Sushil Kumar Rinku on March 27, expressed his dissatisfaction, suggesting political maneuvering and indicating his intention to challenge the decision in court.
The by-election for Jalandhar West is seen as a critical contest, with significant implications for the local and state political landscape. Angural, who won the 2022 Assembly election as an AAP candidate, left the party to join BJP, creating a vacuum that has now led to this by-election.
Earlier, Angural had requested the withdrawal of his resignation, but when he went to meet the Speaker on June 3, he discovered that his resignation had already been accepted on May 30. In response, Angural accused the Government of playing politics with him and announced his intention to challenge the by-election decision in the court. He had also removed references to ‘Modi ka Parivaar’ from his social media accounts.
Angural has vocalized the readiness of his supporters to once again engage in the “battle between truth and falsehood”, confident that the election results will validate their stance. His resignation, accepted shortly before the Lok Sabha elections results, has been a point of contention, with Angural arguing that concurrent elections for both the Lok Sabha and the state assembly would have been more cost-effective for the government.
