 In the 2001 election Sardar Atwal stood in the Phillaur constituency and crushed his political rival Santosh Chowdhury of the Indian National Congress by a huge margin of 98,884 votes.Santosh Chowdhury was the previous 1999 election winner, winning by what was then a large margin of 26,573 votes.From 1997 to 2000 he was Chairman of the Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes.