After Jalandhar West, AAP focus shifts to Gidderbaha bypoll

Archit Watts
Tribune News Service
Gidderbaha/Muktsar, July 31
After winning the Jalandhar West bypoll, the AAP has shifted its focus to the upcoming byelections in Gidderbaha. Just two days after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s visit to Doda village, Cabinet Minister Aman Arora and Dharamkot MLA Devinderjeet Singh Laddi Dhos, who were appointed as AAP’s incharge and co-incharge, respectively, for the Gidderbaha bypoll, visited Gidderbaha town and met the party activists recently.
On the other hand, Amrita Warring, who was being seen as the political heir of her husband, Ludhiana MP Amrinder Singh Raja Warring in Gidderbaha, was missing from the political action. She has toured the area just twice in about three weeks. PCC chief Raja Warring himself has been busy in the Lok Sabha and the Ludhiana constituency. There were talks in political circles that the Warring family was just testing the waters as the Congress had remained in third place in Gidderbaha in the recent general election.
Raja Warring had said, “Being the PCC president, I will not seek the ticket for any member of my family. The ticket is a prerogative of the party. My wife is working in the field, and so are other people. I had not even applied for Ludhiana; however, the party fielded me there.”
Notably, Raja Warring has won thrice in a row from the constituency; however, his margin of victory had come down to just 1,349 votes in 2022. The SAD may field its sitting constituency in-charge, Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, who has twice unsuccessfully contested the election in 2017 and 2022. Further, the BJP may field former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, who got elected four times in a row from here in 1995, 1997, 2002, and 2007, but lost as a PPP candidate to first-time Congress candidate Raja Warring in 2012.
Before the Lok Sabha elections, he had again become active in the politics of this constituency. However, he seemed to have become inactive again. Manpreet’s close aide said today the BJP leadership was putting pressure on the former minister to contest the bypoll as there were no other big names in this constituency.
Meanwhile, the Independent MP from Faridkot, Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, has also toured this constituency recently. Notably, pro-Khalistan leader Bhagwant Singh, alias Pradhan Mantri Bajeke, who was presently lodged in the Dibrugarh jail in Assam along with MP Khadoor Sahib Amritpal Singh, may also contest the bypoll from here.

Advertisement

CM’s OSD in the reckoning?

There are talks in political circles that the AAP may field an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Prof Onkar Singh. Onkar belongs to Roranwali village in the Lambi Assembly segment and is a close friend of the CM, who has also served as in-charge of the CM’s Dhuri Assembly segment. An AAP leader from Gidderbaha said, “A few days ago, I got a message that OSD Onkar Singh will visit the constituency; however, the exact dates of his tour programme are not final yet.” Meanwhile, Onkar was not available for his comments.

Several aspirants for AAP ticket

• The hoardings of an AAP leader Satbeer Singh Brar of Khokhar village congratulating the CM for the proposed Malwa canal have come up
• Another AAP leader Manjeet Singh Dhillon of Faridkot held a press conference on Monday and staked claim for the party ticket
• Besides, constituency in-charge Pritpal Sharma and district planning committee chairman Sukhjinder Singh Kaoni are already in the race