History repeats itself in Nakodar after 31 years

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 11

It was a repeat of the Assembly results today as the two families had clashed after 31 years in Nakodar.

It was out of sheer circumstantial reasons that the son-in-law of former Congress minister Umrao Singh, Jagbir Brar, had contested against former MLA Kuldeep Singh Wadala’s son and sitting Akali MLA Gurpartap Singh Wadala. Both Kuldeep Singh Wadala and Umrao Singh had contested against one another from the same seat in 1985, wherein the former had polled 27,125 votes and the latter had got 26,397 votes (margin of only 728 votes). Brar, who got just 10 days to campaign from Nakodar and even lost his father in Muktsar in these days, has lost with a margin of 20,608 votes.

Brar’s wife Ravneet Brar is the niece of Umrao Singh, who has represented this seat in 1957 and 1977 before becoming Jalandhar MP in 1993. Brar, who has been Akali MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment in 2007 (he had later moved to PPP and then Congress in 2012), was shifted to Nakodar as Pargat Singh (who joined Congress quitting Akali Dal) got the Cantonment ticket instead.

Unlike his father, Gurpartap Wadala has been luckier having one twice from the same seat. The senior Wadala had contested four times in 2007, 1994 bypoll, 1985 and 1980 but had won only once.