It’s fifth election flavour for this ‘dhaba’ owner

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 18

Bal Krishan Sharma of the famous BK Dhaba, known for serving traditional Punjabi cuisines, is all set to contest the ensuing general elections. It will be his fifth foray into the elections and third attempt to make it to the Lok Sabha. Though he is yet to taste a poll success, he is averse to joining any political party.

He is of the view that he has been winning hearts of the locals by serving authentic and delicious Punjabi cuisines at his dhaba for the past about four decades. Besides, he is a known face as a social worker in the area.

He feels that the credibility earned through profession and social work will convince voters to cast their precious votes in his favour. “I have been consistently contesting elections for a decade. This consistency will prompt the voters to consider the candidature of independents like me.”

He had dabbled in politics by contesting the Lok Sabha elections in 2009. He also contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In addition, he had appeared in 2012 and 2017 Assembly elections as well. He has an eventful career. As a Class XI dropout, he had to work at a factory to supplement the meagre income of his father who was working as a security guard at a factory. “Soon, my father passed away and the entire burden of running the house fell on my shoulder. I installed a tea stall to augment the family income. This way, I share a similarity with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who also ran a tea stall in the beginning of his career,” he says.

Soon, his tea business picked up the pace. Later, he set up a food joint. Since then, he hasn’t looked back and now owns two ‘dhabas’. He is giving the best possible education to his four children. “The contemporary youth are interested in experiments and not governed by dogmatic ideas. They will surely like my experiences to get inspired to chalk out their career,” said Bal Krishan.

He is a social worker par excellence. He claimed that he has foot the bill to cremate 514 unclaimed bodies and distributed 580 handcarts of unripe vegetables among the needy. He is also running Nasha Virodhi Samaj Nirman.