A big game of party-hoppers was seen in Punjab, where many such veteran leaders have faced defeat. Former Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh's wife Preneet Kaur, who was an MP from Patiala, resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP. It was clear since Captain Amarinder Singh joined the BJP that she would not contest the 2024 elections on a Congress ticket. The BJP fielded her once again from Patiala in the 2024 elections, but she was defeated by Congress candidate Dr. Dharamvir Gandhi. Interestingly, she finished third in the election. Preneet has won the parliamentary election from the Patiala seat so far except in 2014. In 2014, she lost the election to the then Aam Aadmi Party candidate Dharamvir Gandhi.
Before the Lok Sabha elections, Punjab Congress suffered a major setback when three-time Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu left the party and joined BJP. BJP fielded him from Ludhiana seat but he lost to Congress candidate Amarinder Singh Raja by more than twenty thousand votes. In Punjab, turncoats Sushil Kumar Rinku and Pawan Kumar Tinu also lost from Jalandhar seat. Aam Aadmi Party had fielded Sushil Kumar Rinku from Jalandhar but he joined BJP. BJP had given him ticket from this seat. Shiromani Akali Dal leader Pawan Kumar Tinu, who was MLA from Adampur, joined Aam Aadmi Party and AAP fielded him from Jalandhar seat but Congress candidate and former CM Charanjit Singh Channi won this seat.
A big name in Haryana politics also faced defeat. After being in Congress for a long time, Ashok Tanwar joined Trinamool Congress, after that he joined Aam Aadmi Party. AAP gave him big responsibility in Haryana but just before the election he joined BJP. Senior Congress leader Kumari Selja defeated BJP's Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa by a huge margin of 2.68 lakh votes. Giving a jolt to JMM before the Lok Sabha election, Sita Soren, elder daughter-in-law of party chief Shibu Soren joined BJP and BJP made her a candidate from Dumka, the traditional seat of JMM but she lost the election.
In Bihar too, those who changed parties have had the same fate. Deepak Yadav, who left BJP and joined RJD in April after not getting a ticket from Valmiki Nagar seat, also lost to JDU's Sunil Kumar by 98,675 votes. Ajay Nishad, who won Muzaffarpur seat on BJP ticket in 2019, also left the party and joined Congress after his ticket was cut. Congress gave ticket to Ajay Nishad from Muzaffarpur, while Raj Bhushan Chaudhary, who left VIP and joined BJP, was fielded from the same seat. BJP's Raj Bhushan Chaudhary defeated Congress' Ajay Nishad by more than 2.34 lakh votes.
`; articlesDiv.innerHTML += articleHTML; }); } // Initialize and render feeds fetchAndRenderFeeds();
