Punjab Election 2022: Meet AAP's Jeevan Jyot Kaur, giant-killer who defeated Sidhu and Majithia

Kaur won the Amritsar East constituency by bagging a total vote of 39,679. Trailing second behind the AAP candidate was Congress' Navjot Singh Sidhu with 32,929 votes. Bikramjit Majithia finished at the third spot with 25,188 votes.

Pic courtesy: Twitter/@jeevanjyot20

Amritsar (Punjab): This was a typical case of David defeating the Goliaths! In Amritsar East, it was expected to be a political battle between heavyweights Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and Shiromani Akali Dal's (SAD) Bikramjit Majithia. But it was Jeevan Jyot Kaur of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) who defeated the duo to emerge as the winner. AAP has bagged a historic victory in Punjab, winning 92 seats. The Congress could win only 18 seats while SAD+ got 4.

Jeevan Jyot Kaur definitely emerged as the giant killer.  Speaking to ANI, Kaur said that Punjab has overcome identity politics. Thanking the voters for giving AAP and the "tried and tested Delhi model" of Arvind Kejriwal a chance, she said, "It's the victory of the people of Punjab. My ticket was announced around December 30... Got positive indication during door-to-door campaigns that Punjab has overcome identity politics."

She further added that the party was confident of forming a government with a majority in Punjab "because the people here were already frustrated with other political parties." "These parties (Congress and SAD) have interchangeably ruled Punjab. The people of Punjab felt looted and the youth, since they saw no opportunities here, has been running abroad," Kaur said.

Kaur is popularly known as “pad woman” – even her Twitter bio refers to her as so – since she used to run a programme under which woman prison inmates were provided sanitary napkins in jails across Punjab. The 50-year-old was born in Hoshiarpur and has been a philanthropist for the larger part of life/

Mocking parties over vendetta politics, she said that AAP is not here to do politics "but to change the politics" and therefore, talks about issues and not personal rivalries."People have voted for a change. I believe that a leader becomes big through their work, but they (big leaders) have not even done the minutest of people's work. When we would go for door-to-door campaigns, people would say that we don't see the large elephants, we just see jhadu," she said.

Sharing her vision for the constituency, Kaur said that several issues such as cleanliness, water availability and drugs are among the major and initial issues she`d like to deal with. "I consider this as an opportunity to work for the people, and as a social activist, I will help people in whatever way possible, especially the health and education sector," she added while saying that it is good to be a part of good politics.

Talking of women's representation in politics, the newly elected MLA said, "This is a big win for the women. I have always said that women need equal representation in politics. While campaigning, I have felt that the ladies were relieved seeing a female candidate."

Kaur won the Amritsar East constituency by bagging a total vote of 39,679. Trailing second behind the AAP candidate was Congress' Sidhu with 32,929 votes. Majithia finished at the third spot with 25,188 votes. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the assembly polls in Punjab getting a three-fourths majority in a strong electoral performance that pushed most of its rivals in the state to the margins. 

(With ANI inputs)