Ranjit Singh Brahampura, Ramanjit Singh Sikki lock horns again in Khadoor Sahib
Gurbaxpuri
Tarn Taran, February 11
The Khadoor Sahib Vidhan Sabha constituency in Tarn Taran district has become a hot seat where political analysts are keeping a close watch. It has a total number of 2,00,266 votes — 1,05,476 men, 94,783 women and seven others.
It is a seat from where Ranjit Singh Brahampura is contesting as the SAD candidate. Two years back, Congress candidate Ramanjit Singh Sikki had to face residents’ ire in the spurious liquor episode where about 100 persons were killed. He had been facing opposition from within the Congress as Jasbir Singh Dimpa, party’s Lok Sabha member from Khadoor Sahib, was missing from his election campaign.
AAP candidate Manjinder Singh Lalpura is facing a maximum number of five criminal cases registered against him. Manjinder was the main accused in the infamous Usman episode in which a Scheduled Caste girl was openly beaten up by the local police.
Harjinder Singh Tanda, a candidate of the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM), was contesting from the constituency, but farmer’s group opposed the elections.
Ranjit Singh Brahampura of the SAD, who is considered to be a stalwart leader of the state politics, is one of the eight candidates in the fray. Ramanjit Singh Sikki, who is presently representing the constituency, is again in the fray as the Congress candidate. Manjinder Singh Lalpura, a new face at this level, is the AAP candidate. Harjinder Singh Tanda, SSM candidate, is the state president of the Azad Kisan Sangharsh Committee, Punjab.
Brahampura, 84, is quite active in the area and had personal contacts with residents. He is taking maximum advantage of his more than 60-year relationship with them. It is a matter of satisfaction that there was no sacrilege issue which Brahampura had himself raised at the time of parting ways with the SAD.
AAP’s Lalpura is considered to a new political face, but he has remained active in the area for more than 10 years. He unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Khadoor sahib seat in 2019. He had developed his deep roots in the area with all sections of the society, besides taking advantage of positive response to the AAP by the people.
Congress candidate Sikki represented the constituency in 2012 but he resigned from the seat protesting the sacrilege incidents of 2015-16. He, in his first election of 2012, defeated Ranjit Singh Brahampura and his performances was appreciated by all. His long absence from the constituency was one of the major issue being raised by the people.
Sikki’s candidature was declared much late by the Congress high command as he was opposed by Jasbir Singh Dimpa, Lok Sabha member from the Khadoor Sahib constituency. Dimpa wanted a party ticket for his brother, Harpinder Singh, alias, Rajan Gill, or for his son, Gursant Updesh Singh Gill. He was facing internal party friction as Rajan Gill had joined the SAD.
The neutral circles revealed that a triangular contest was being observed in the constituency. Pooran Singh Shekh, Jaswant Singh, Gurdev Singh Jahangir and Varinder Singh Vicky were in the fray as Independent candidates.
As the constituency was close to the Beas, there were reports that illicit liquor was manufactured and sold in different parts of the state. The Police and the Excise Department often conduct raids in the Mand area and recovery of huge quantity was the routine work.
In the 2017 elections, Sikkiwon the elections with 64,666 votes, while Ravinder Singh Brahampura of the SAD bagged 47,611 votes.
