JALANDHAR: The Congress may just face a tough challenge in near future if AAP MLAs H S Phoolka and Sukhpal Khaira vacate their legislative constituencies. This is because in both seats, Khaira’s Bholath and Phoolka’s Dakha, the Congress came in third in the two seats in 2017 assembly elections, while the SAD was the runner-up.The Congress’s performance was so bad in Bholath that its candidate, Ranjit Singh Rana, had to forfeit his deposit. He got only around 5,600 votes, less than the 8,202-vote margin between Khaira and runner-up Yuvraj Bhupinder Singh of the SAD, who is the son-in-law of former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur. Bhupinder had contested from the seat as Jagir Kaur was at the time convicted in the death of her daughter. With the Punjab and Haryana high court clearing her name in the case, the SAD’s top woman leader would be able to contest a bypoll from here.The seat has been a stronghold of the Shiromani Akali Dal. Of the five contests he has had with Jagir Kaur, Khaira has won twice from the seat. In four contests, Khaira was a Congress candidate and could win only once. The fifth one was between Khaira as an AAP candidate and Bhupinder, who was Jagir’s stand-in nominee. While Phoolka has already sent his resignation to Punjab assembly speaker, leader of opposition (LoP) Harpal Cheema sought Khaira’s disqualification on Wednesday, eight days after he founded Punjabi Ekta Party on January 8. Given its strong presence in both seats, SAD could have a revival of its fortunes in byelections to the two seats. Earlier, the party had lost Shahkot byelection, but the Congress already had a strong presence there, while AAP was completely routed in the contest.In Dakha, SAD’s Manpreet Aiyali was the runner-up. He lost to Phoolka by 4,349 votes, while Congress candidate Major Singh Bhaini could secure just 28,571 votes. Even in Jaitu, whose AAP MLA Master Baldev Singh resigned on Wednesday, the Congress faces a close fight. Though its candidate Muhammad Sadique was the runner-up, the margin between him and the SAD candidate was just 2,287 votes.

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