Sharma wins Pathankot, fails to give party an edge

Chandigarh: Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma (57) won the Pathankot assembly constituency this time by defeating his nearest rival Amit Vij of the Congress by a margin of 7,759 votes but won’t be able to manage the expectations of the saffron party to form the government in Punjab.
In the 2017 state assembly polls, Sharma had lost to Vij with a margin of 11,170 votes.
Sharma, who has an RSS background, was appointed as the state BJP president on January 14, 2020. His main task was to prepare the party cadre, then marred by factionalism, for the 2022 assembly elections. The BJP was then considering contesting without a pre-poll alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
He faced the biggest challenge of his career when the saffron party leadership found it difficult to reach out to the people of Punjab in the run up to the state assembly polls as farmers were up in arms against the three contentious central farm laws. Due to farmers’ protest, the party also lost some important leaders.tnn