Amritsar: Just two days after the world celebrated International Women's Day, a Punjab woman has come out as the giant slayer in the Assembly elections. Jeevan Jyot Kaur, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate defeated Congress heavyweights Navjot Sidhu, the chief of Punjab Congress, and Bikram Singh Majithia aka 'Majhe Da Jarnail' of the Shiromani Akali Dal to win Amritsar East.
Until today, Sidhu and Majithia were undefeated in their political careers. Jeevan Jyot won by a margin of 6,750 votes against Sidhu. According to Election Commission statistics, Jeevan Jyot secured a total of 39,679 votes, while Sidhu got 32,929 and Majithia 25,188.
Who is she?
Jeevan Jyot Kaur is the party's district president for Amritsar (Urban). This was the first time she was fighting Assembly elections or any elections for that matter. Jeevan Jyot is known as a social activist and her work on promoting menstrual hygiene gained the moniker of Amritsar's 'pad woman'. She has been the chairperson of the S.H.E. Society that creates awareness about sanitary pads made of plastic and distributes reusable sanitary pads to women. According to reports, she had tied up with a Swiss based company to provide women with reusable pads. Seen as a common person who was pitted against political heavyweights in a a sort of a David verus Goliath, she was able to score in the ongoing AAP wave in the border state.
Her reaction
Speaking to media today afternoon, she said: "I want to thank all the voters of Amritsar East that they gave Arvind Kejriwal ji and Bhagwant Mann ji an opportunity. The faith you have put in the Arvind Kejriwal's tried and tested model of development. It is a victory of people."
Asked how she was feeling since until today, Amritsar East was considered a fight between Sidhu and Majithia only, she said, "My ticket was announced on December 3 and since then I have been among my people here, doing door to door campaigns. We got positive indications that Punjab had gone beyond identity politics now. People told me 'ma'am you have come now, we had made our mind six months back that we will vote for AAP' And they did not see any giants but only the AAP broom."
