Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Few seats would be as symbolic of the Aam Aadmi Party’s sweep of Punjab as Amritsar East, where the party’s Jeevan Jyot Kaur has defeated heavyweights – Navjot Sidhu of the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal’s Bikram Singh Majithia.
For many, this was a typical a David vs Goliath battle with Sidhu being the chief of the Punjab Congress and Majithia being SAD’s ‘Majhe Da Jarnail’ (General of the Majha region) besides being the brother-in-law of party chief Sukhbir Badal.
Till now both Sidhu and Majithia have been undefeated in their respective careers. This would be their first ever electoral loss.
But who is Jeevan Jyot Kaur?
‘Pad Woman’ of Amritsar
Jeevan Jyot Kaur is the party’s district president for Amritsar (Urban). She gained the moniker of Amritsar’s ‘pad woman’ due to her work on promoting menstrual hygiene.
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.
The Quint had reported from Amritsar East in January that it was Jeevan Jyot and not Majithia who had become the main challenger to Sidhu.
There was a lot of goodwill for Jeevan Jyot who was seen as a common person who had entered politics and was up against two formidable politicians.
‘Ran a Low Profile, Issue-Based Campaign’
“These two leaders (Sidhu and Majithia) in different ways represent all that’s wrong with Punjab politics. Sidhu didn’t do anything in the seat, Majithia has allegations against him. We didn’t want their personality contest to divert from real issues,” says an AAP functionary closely involved with Jeevan Jyot’s campaign.
The functionary added that the party’s main focus was on highlighting issues that affected people – such as poor civic infrastructure in slums, lack of adequate healthcare and sanitation.
