In the run-up to polling in Punjab on February 20, Amritsar East was described as one of the constituencies to watch. This was because Punjab Congress unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu was facing Shiromani Akali Dal strongman Bikram Singh Majithia in the constituency. Sidhu had been vying to be named the Congress's chief ministerial face, while Majithia had once been considered a possible CM face for the Akali Dal before he faced allegations of links with drug traffickers.
But by afternoon on Thursday, both 'heavyweights' had lost from Amritsar East, washed away by the AAP wave along with numerous others from the Congress and Akali Dal. They lost to AAP's Jeevan Jyot Kaur, who was fighting her first poll battle.
Jeevan Jyot won by a margin of 6,750 votes against Sidhu. According to Election Commission statistics, Jeevan Jyot secured a total of 39,679 votes, while Sidhu got 32,929 and Majithia 25,188.
While not having the national visibility that Sidhu and Majithia had, Jeevan Jyot Kaur (50) had earned plaudits for her work with the Sri Hemkunt Education Society. She had been associated with the EcoShe Menstrual Health Programme, which oversaw distribution of eco-friendly sanitary napkins in prisons, schools, slum areas and rural places in Punjab. This work earned her the sobriquet of 'pad woman'. In face, her Twitter handle refers to her as 'pad woman of Punjab'.
Jeevan Jyot joined the AAP in 2015, steadily rising in its ranks. Jeevan Jyot described AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal's victory against then Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit in the 2013 Delhi election as an inspiration for newcomers for her. The 2013 Delhi assembly election was the AAP's first poll battle.
While Majithia and Sidhu were involved in what can be described as large-scale campaigning, Jeevan Jyot focussed on ward-level meetings and door-to-door campaigning. Se told mediapersons Amritsar East had been facing issues such as “lack of clean drinking water, broken sewerage, dangling high-tension wires mounted right above residential colonies... drug addiction,” The Tribune reported in February.
She once described Sidhu and Majithia as “political elephants” who were busy fighting each other, but not raising concerns of voters.
Her children, one an advocate and the other a dentist, helped her in campaigning.
And all of the effort paid off on Thursday.
