MULTAN: PML-N’s Siddique Baloch’s `shocking’ defeat in the NA-154 by-election on Wednesday is mainly due to resentment within the party against the leadership for awarding ticket to a newcomer and ignoring the old leaders.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI’s) Jahangir Khan Tareen, who won the bye-poll, ran his campaign consistently right after a Supreme Court’s decision that unseated Mr Baloch, who had won the seat in the 2013 elections as an independent and later joined the ruling PML-N.

According to unofficial results, Mr Tareen got 138,719 votes against Baloch’s 99,933.

In the 2013 elections, Mr Baloch had bagged 86,177 votes as an independent candidate against Mr Tareen’s 75,955.

Local observers said though Mr Baloch improved his tally compared to the general elections, most of the over 40,000 new votes registered in the last two and half years were bagged by the PTI.

Former PML-N ticket-holders, except PML-N’s Rafiuddin Shah and Tahir Amin Ghauri (PP-210), had joined the PTI.

PML-N ticket-holders Akhtar Kanju (NA-155), Zawar Warraich (PP-207), Tahir Malezai (PP-208), Mehmood Joya (PP-209), Rana Aslam (PP-210) and Mehmoodul Hasan (PP-211) were with Mr Tareen.

Even though, MNA Hamza Shahbaz won over Mr Aslam and held a press conference at his residence one week before the poll, but it did not work. According to political circles of Lodhran, Mr Aslam was forced to support the PML-N through his two close relatives serving in government departments.

They said that Mr Shah also wanted to contest the by-election after Mr Baloch was disqualified by an election tribunal, the party leadership forced him to support Mr Baloch. His reluctant support did not make any difference. Mr Shah had obtained 45,406 votes in the 2013 election.

“We are not defeated by Tareen,” said PML-N Lodhran district president Tahir Amin Ghauri. “It is the result of wrong policies of our party leadership.”

He said that the party ticket was awarded to a person who had distributed sweets when the PML-N leadership was jailed by a dictator.

He said that when he applied for the party ticket for the constituency, the party leadership forced him to withdraw his candidature in favour of Mr Baloch.

He said even though he followed the orders, he told the party leadership that it was not an appropriate decision.

He said that he was asked to contest the election of councilor under an understanding that he would be party’s candidate for municipal committee chairmanship but Mr Baloch worked to defeat him.

Mr Baloch alleged that money was used by his rival candidate in the election.

Political analysts say a non-government organisation launched in 1999 benefited Mr Tareen.

A local journalist said Mr Tareen campaigned more effectively as compared to the general election as he spent maximum time in the constituency and remained in touch with not only influential groups but also the common man.

He said that an effective campaign was also launched in the favour Mr Tareen through social media.

“The youth was engaged through social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, whereas Mr Baloch or the PML-N had no presence at social media,” he said.

He said Mr Tareen engaged famous singers like Attaullah Esakhelvi and Abrarul Haq to attract people in his rallies. “Development of the area has never remained the priority of the government. For example there is only one high school in the Lodhran city despite the fact the city has a population of more than 300,000,” said Mr Ghauri.

He said that despite the prime minister announced a package of Rs2.5 billion for the district, people did not take it seriously.

Rana Sameer Mumtaz Noon, PPP candidate, could manage 1,910 votes . Mirza Nasir Baig, party’s nominee in the 2013 election, had got 11,173 votes but this time he was supporting Mr Tareen.

LPP: The working of the Lodhran Pilot Project, an NGO, which started working in the area at the initiative of Tareen in 1999, also influenced the results.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2015