Punjab: Amarinder Singh is the real winner

If actor Vinod Khanna's widow, Kavita, had been the BJP's candidate in the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-poll, could the party have avoided the humiliating defeat it faced?

If actor Vinod Khanna’s widow, Kavita, had been the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) candidate in the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-election, could the party have avoided the humiliating defeat it faced? Hard to say. Nothing went in the BJP’s favour in this election. But it may be premature to use the by-election setback to write the party’s obituary in Punjab  — just as it might be speculative to extrapolate the victory on the prospects of the Congress returning to power in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, where Assembly elections are due on November 9.

Khanna won this seat in 2014 with a margin