Jalalabad:High turnout leaves field wide open

Praful Chander Nagpal

Fazilka, February 5

The high turnout (86.91 per cent) in Jalalabad Assembly constituency has made the three-cornered contest anybody’s game. SAD president and sitting MLA Sukhbir Singh Badal is facing a tough challenge from AAP MP Bhagwant Mann and Congress MP Ravneet Bittu.

The constituency is dominated by Rai Sikhs, who have about 65,000 votes (about one-third of the electorate). However, none of the major parties granted the ticket to a Rai Sikh leader. The community-dominated villages of Chack Khiva and Rohiwala witnessed polling as high as 98 per cent. Speculation is rife that rebel SAD MP Sher Singh Ghubaya helped Bittu get Rai Sikh votes.

Sukhbir had won by a huge margin of more than 80,000 votes in the 2009 byelection after Ghubaya vacated his seat. He won by over 50,000 votes in the 2012 Assembly elections. A section of Rai Sikh leaders said the SAD had undertaken many development projects in the area, but the “interference” of halqa incharge Satinderjit Singh Manta had put the party on the back foot.