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Rebel rattles Manpreet
Perneet Singh
Tribune News Service
Gidderbaha, February 5
A nephew of the SAD supremo and three-time MLA, Mr Manpreet Singh Badal, is facing a tough challenge on this hotly contested seat surprisingly due to a rebel Congress candidate, Sant Singh Brar, whose candidature has spiced up the poll battle. The high-profile constituency has been a pocket borough of the Badal clan since the 1960s. Mr Manpreet has been pitted against the Congress candidate, Mr Raghbir Singh, whom he had defeated in the last Assembly poll. Though Mr Brar will make a dent in the votebank of Mr Manpreet as well as Mr Raghbir, a survey of the area reveals that the damage to the former will be far more. Moreover, Mr Brar has also roped in Mr Baldev Singh Brar, who was once a close confidant of the SAD president.
SAD leader Manpreet Singh Badal campaigns in his constituency Gidderbaha.
— Tribune photo by Kulbir Beera |
The Brar-duo wields a considerable clout in the Kotbhai-Doda-Kauni belt, which played a crucial role in lending a lead to Mr Manpreet in previous elections. These three villages have a sizable number of Jat Sikh votes, who are considered the traditional SAD votebank. With farmers going gaga over a bumper cotton crop, the Congress, too, will gain at the SAD's cost. Pleading anonymity, a traditional SAD voter from Husnar village admits: "Though I will vote for
Mr Manpreet, there is no doubt that the Congress will make inroads into the peasantry that previously voted for the SAD." Mr Manpreet has received yet another jolt with Dera Sacha Sauda announcing its support to the Congress. Interestingly, the contest has turned so keen that a section of the electorate feels that Mr Manpreet faces the real challenge from Mr Brar and not the official Congress nominee. As Guraditta Singh, a farmer from Buttar Bakua village, says: "Mr Brar stood by us in the hour of crisis in the past. Though Mr Manpreet is an honest man, he has done little to redress our woes." The electorate here is also skeptical of the SAD's much-hyped promise of 'atta' and 'dal'. "It's very difficult to believe as to how Mr Badal can provide 'atta' at Rs 4 per kg when wheat is selling at Rs 10 per kg," says a group of daily wagers from Kotbhai and Pyori villages. Like Lambi, people here are not inclined to vote on local issues. Mukhtiar Singh of Kotbhai said: "We don't have access to clean drinking water and our people suffer from cancer, asthma and other serious ailments. No political party has made a sincere effort to solve our problems." He said their village had given an edge to Mr Manpreet in the last elections, but this time they will vote for change.
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