Satya Pal Jain taking oath as Member of Parliament (12th Lok Sabha | 1998) in Punjabi

Satya Pal Jain was re-elected as Member of Parliament from Chandigarh Parliamentary Constituency in 12th Lok Sabha as a candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), defeating his nearest rival Sh. Pawan Kumar Bansal of Congress with a margin of about 15000 votes. Mr. Jain took oath as MP on 23 March, 1998 in Punjabi.

Haryana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan frustrate BJP's impressive march

Rediff.com
The Bharatiya Janata Party has won the Banswara (Rajasthan), Bombay North, Erandol (Maharashtra), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Tumkur, Shimoga (Karnataka), Gurudaspur, Hoshiarpur (Punjab) and Daman and Diu Lok Sabha seats, and is leading, along with allies, in 181 of 402 constituencies where trends are available.
... BJP's Daya Singh Bodhi leads by 2,892 votes in Amritsar and Satya Pal Jain in Chandigarh. ...

Jain second after Kaushal to be re-elected from Chandigarh

EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

CHANDIGARH, March 2: Terming his victory as a victory of the people of Chandigarh, BJP's Satya Pal Jain said the verdict showed that the people of Chandigarh had endorsed the national sentiment of selecting Atal Behari Vajpayee as the prime minister.

Talking to Newsline after winning the Chandigarh seat for the second consecutive time, Jain said the people wanted a stable government at the Centre and they now felt that it was only the BJP and Vajpayee who could provide a stable government.

Jain also thanked the people of Chandigarh for reposing faith in him and the BJP-SAD alliance.

Asked to comment on the reduced margin this time, Jain said the BSP, which had polled about 10,000 votes in the last election, made the difference. "I have, however, increased my total tally of votes from 1.01 lakh last time to over 1.19 lakh this time." Jain had won by over 23,000 votes last time.

Incidentally, Jain is the second candidate after Jagan Nath Kaushal of the Congress to be re-elected in theconstituency.

An advocate by profession, Jain is considered a good orator. He started his political career at an early age by winning the election to the Panjab University Senate in 1976, which he continued to win till 1990.

He first contested the Lok Sabha seat from Chandigarh in 1991, which he lost to Bansal by a margin of about 15,000 votes. He later won in 1996 and repeated his performance now.

Jain claims that he has seldom lost an election and claimed that his 1991 loss was the only one which he could recall.

UT is Jain's again, by 10,366 votes

EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

CHANDIGARH, March 2: Bharatiya Janata Party nominee Satya Pal Jain was today re-elected from the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat. Jain won by a margin of 10,366 votes from his nearest rival, Pawan Kumar Bansal of Congress. While Jain polled 1,19,787 votes, Bansal was a close second with 1,09,421.

Trailing far behind with 41,195 votes, former Union minister Harmohan Dhawan of the Samajwadi Janata Party lost his security deposit after he failed to garner the required one-sixth of the total votes polled.

Of the total of 18 candidates in the fray, 16 of them lost their security deposits.

Amar Singh Chahal of the Samajwadi Party polled 4,552 votes, Independent Sajjan Singh 2,374 votes and Bimla of the Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar) 1,026 votes. The rest of the contestants failed to reach even the three-figure mark. Sunil Saini of the ABP could poll only 959 votes.

In the last election, Bansal was behind Jain by a margin of about 25,000 votes.

Jain was leading right from the first round of counting and thetrend continued right through, with Jain consolidating his position from a lead of about 2,700 votes in the first round.

A new method of counting was adopted for the Chandigarh seat, after the Election Commission selected it as one of the four such constituencies, which resulted in accurate availability of election trends.

Once the lead reached the 10,000-figure, jubilant supporters of Jain started gathering at his residence in Sector 15. The lead, which at one time touched 13,000, was reduced in the last round.

Since the lead was being maintained right from the start, BJP and Akali supporters felt the vote was clearly in their favour. Making a beeline for Jain's residence, his supporters got together and garlanded him. Sweets were distributed even when the counting for the last few rounds was yet to be taken up, much before the official declaration of the result.

The "saffron-band" later took to the roads as BJP and SAD supporters gathered outside the office of the Deputy Commissioner, where theresult was officially declared.

They later took out a procession, amidst slogan-shouting.

Haryana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan frustrate BJP's impressive march

Rediff News

The Bharatiya Janata Party has won the Banswara (Rajasthan), Bombay North, Erandol (Maharashtra), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Tumkur, Shimoga (Karnataka), Gurudaspur, Hoshiarpur (Punjab) and Daman and Diu Lok Sabha seats, and is leading, along with allies, in 181 of 402 constituencies where trends are available. ...

... In Punjab, Janata Dal's Gujral has been declared elected. The BJP has won the Hoshiapur and Gurudaspur seats. It leads in Amritsar. The Shiromani Akali Dal is in lead in Ludhiana, Battinda, Patiala and Ropar. BJP's Daya Singh Bodhi leads by 2,892 votes in Amritsar and Satya Pal Jain in Chandigarh. ...