Hopeful of ticket, Jakhar intensifies poll campaign

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, February 19

Not waiting for an official announcement, sitting Gurdaspur MP and PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar has put his election campaign in the top gear by increasing the frequency of his visits to the constituency.

Jakhar’s decision has not raised many eyebrows because, if top party sources are to be believed, he remains a frontrunner despite the fact that Amardeep Cheema, Chairman, Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC), and a former Director of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), has also thrown his hat in the ring. In 2011, Cheema, who had applied for the ticket on February 7 this year, had become the youngest ever Director of the LIC, one of the largest PSUs in the world. Insiders claim that it is not necessary that ticket will be given to only those candidates who have applied. In the 2017 Assembly polls, Pathankot MLA Amit Vij had not applied but was still given ticket.

Apparently to give a head start to his campaign against the BJP candidate, Jakhar these days is on a foundation stone-laying spree. On Monday, he laid the stone of the railway overbridge on the Dinanagar-Behrampur road. The MP has regularly been doling out grants from his MPLAD fund to projects which are supposed to pull in votes.

All the seven sitting party MLAs of the parliamentary seat have been asked to go full throttle ahead in initiating development works. All eyes are on the vote-spinning Kartarpur Sahib corridor project with Cabinet minister and Dera Baba Nanak MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa bringing in several projects in the wake of the impending construction of the passage.

Jakhar has held meetings with Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari to ensure that the centuries-old Mukteshwar Dham caves do not get submerged when the new lake of the Shahpur Kandi Dam comes up. This is considered to be a politically important move as it involves the sentiments of thousands of voters, particularly those belonging to the Rajput community, who worship the caves and do not want them to be drowned. Jakhar has also met the Railway Minister recently and impressed upon him to elevate the 3.5-km-long narrow gauge track running within the municipal limits of Pathankot. “If this is done, the face of the city will change and will give a big head start to Jakhar,” admitted a BJP leader.

On his part, Cheema has submitted a “vision document” to the PPCC which speaks of setting up ICAR-sponsored sugarcane and wheat research stations and also establishing a super-specialty hospital.

Meets Railway Minister  

Sunil Jakhar met the Railway Minister recently and impressed upon him to elevate the 3.5-km-long narrow gauge track running within the municipal limits of Pathankot. “If this is done, the face of the city will change and will give a big head start to Jakhar,” admitted a BJP leader.