Jalandhar West could see one of Punjab’s most unusual political contests in the 2027 Assembly election, with the constituency’s recent electoral history dominated by leaders who have switched parties as the political journey of Sheetal Angural, Sushil Kumar Rinku and Mohinder Bhagat has turned Jalandhar West into a seat where party loyalty and political movement have become a major part of the story.
The latest chapter began with the 2022 Assembly election.
AAP’s Sheetal Angural defeated Congress candidate Sushil Kumar Rinku by 4,253 votes and secured 39,213 votes, while Rinku polled 34,960.
BJP’s candidate received 33,486 votes, making it a closely fought three-way contest, however, the political equation changed dramatically after the election.
In March 2024, Angural left AAP and joined the BJP and on the same day, Sushil Kumar Rinku, who had by then also moved from Congress to AAP, joined the BJP.
Rinku’s political journey had already taken him across two parties.
He had left Congress for AAP in 2023 and won the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-election on an AAP ticket and in 2024, he joined the BJP and contested the Lok Sabha election from Jalandhar, but lost to Congress candidate Charanjit Singh Channi by around 1.75 lakh votes, meanwhile, Angural’s move to the BJP triggered a by-election in Jalandhar West.
AAP fielded Mohinder Bhagat, while BJP gave the ticket to Angural and Congress fielded Surinder Kaur.
Bhagat’s own political journey added another layer to the contest and he was associated with the BJP before joining AAP in 2023.
He had contested the Jalandhar West seat twice on a BJP ticket, in 2017 and 2022, but lost both elections. The 2024 bypoll, therefore, brought together three candidates with significant political histories involving party changes.
And the result was decisive as AAP’s Mohinder Bhagat won with 55,246 votes, securing 58.39 per cent of the vote, while BJP’s Sheetal Angural finished second with 17,921 votes, or 18.94 per cent.
Congress candidate Surinder Kaur finished third with 16,757 votes, or 17.71 per cent.
Bhagat defeated Angural by 37,325 votes.
The result was a dramatic reversal from the 2022 election. Just two years earlier, Angural had won the seat for AAP by 4,253 votes and in the bypoll, after switching to BJP, he lost the same constituency by more than 37,000 votes.
Bhagat’s victory was also significant because he won the seat after switching from BJP to AAP.
Congress, meanwhile, remained in the contest but finished third. Surinder Kaur’s 16,757 votes were only 1,164 fewer than Angural’s BJP tally and the three political journeys now stand as follows: Bhagat is the sitting AAP MLA, Angural is with BJP, and Rinku is with BJP as well, so any of the two can be chosen as a party face from the seat, However there is no official announcement confirming anything yet.
That makes Jalandhar West an unusual political battlefield ahead of 2027.
For now, there is no official announcement on who the major parties will field in 2027.
Any discussion about Congress fielding another turncoat, or choosing a local face, remains speculation unless and until the party announces its candidate, but what is certain is that Jalandhar West has already produced a political contest where candidates have crossed party lines and faced former political colleagues.
