Difficult to gauge which way the wind will blow in Patti
Gurbaxpuri
Tarn Taran, February 12
The Patti constituency of Tarn Taran district remained in several controversies in the past five years. Be it drugs, inter-gang killings, distillation of illicit liquor, rule of gangsters, carjacking cases, frequent snatchings, viral videos with foul language and threats to his rivals by the MLA, these were issues which residents have been facing since the very beginning of the present Congress government.
Illegal mining and corruption in different offices under the garb of politicians are other troubles that residents face.
All these issues had remained the talk of the town these days during election and these are the only election issues in this election from the constituency. Every day, village elders are seen raising these issues in one or the other media, particularly social media.
It is the constituency from where traditional rivals — current MLA Harminder Singh Gill of Congress and Adesh Partap Singh Kairon of SAD — are facing serious challenge from their rivals.
New face Laljit Singh Bhullar of the AAP with nine other candidates, too, are in the fray this time, which had made the contest interesting and difficult to adjudge as to which way the wind will blow.
Adesh Partap Singh Kairon is the son-in-law of SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal. He had represented the constituency four times in 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012. He was the Cabinet Minister in the government headed by senior Badal.
He along with his wife and other members of the family had been camping in their parental house in Kairon village for the last more than six months to re-establish their relationship with voters. They remain out of touch with the area previously.
Harminder Singh Gill started his career as the president of AISSF and contested the Lok Sabha election in 1996 under the banner of Panthic Morcha led by Gurcharan Singh Tohra, the then president of the SGPC.
He lost the Vidhan Sabha election to Adesh Partap Singh Kairon in 2012 and won the 2017 election.
He had been claiming to initiate several developmental works in the area besides a number of developmental works during his tenure as an MLA.
New face Laljit Singh Bhullar of AAP is getting great response from the area. His activities had made the contest triangular, which was being witnessed from the seat for the first time after the 1977 election, which was conducted after the lifting of Emergency.
Laljit is a resident of Patti town and was a commission agent (arhtiya) in the Patti grain market. He has his contacts with farmers, residents of the area and other section od society. A year ago, he backed two AAP candidates in the Patti Municipal Council election and succeeded to convince residents. His two candidates won the election and that was his first entry in the political field. The constituency is known as ‘panthic’ and is a rural belt. A majority of voters are Sikhs with remarkable number of Scheduled Caste votes too. The SAD, Congress and AAP candidates are leaving no stone unturned in winning the election. SAD candidate had even released a ‘manifesto’ assuring to arrange job opportunities by way of establishing rural-based industrial units in villages. CM Charanjit Singh Channi had visited the constituency and addressed a political conference in favour of party candidate Harminder Singh Gill. AAP CM face and the state president Bhagwant Mann, too, organised a roadshow for his party candidate a few days ago. No senior SAD leader has so far visited the area.
Important seat after Independence
- The constituency remained of much importance since the very first election of the country held in 1952 after the Independence. Kairon, the native village of the then Chief Minister Partap Singh Kairon, falls in this constituency. Partap Singh Kairon was the Chief Minister of undivided Punjab. He, too, represented the constituency in the 1952 elections.
- Traditional rivals — current MLA Harminder Singh Gill of Congress and Adesh Partap Singh Kairon of SAD — are facing a serious challenge from their rivals.
- Laljit Singh Bhullar of the AAP is a new face with nine others in the fray this time. The other candidates who are in the fray are Jaskaran Singh (Punjab Lok Congress), Sartaj Singh Harike (SSM), Manjit Singh, Dilbag Singh, Satnam Singh, Ravinder Singh, Sukhwant Singh Harjinder Singh and Amandeep Singh.
- In the 2017 election, Harminder Singh Gill of the Congress won with 64,617 votes and Adesh Partap Singh Kairon of SAD could manage 56,254 votes in his favour
