Bir Devinder is a good bet for Taksalis from Anandpur Sahib

Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, February 21

Barely two weeks after he joined SAD Taksali, Bir Devinder Singh, former Deputy Speaker, Vidhan Sabha, has been fielded for the parliamentary poll from Anandpur Sahib seat. He is the first candidate to be announced by the party.

Considered a “good orator and a prolific writer” by some and a “party hopper” by others, Bir Devinder was considered by SAD Taksali to be a good bet from the seat as it encompasses Kharar from where he has been an MLA from 2002 to 2007. 

Though he is a native of Kotla Bhai Ka village of Sirhind, Bir Devinder boasts of his contacts in Anandpur Sahib. “This is a constituency where the people will not need my introduction. It was during my tenure that Mohali was carved out as a separate constituency. So, I am familiar with Mohali segment too,” he says.

The SAD Taksali had always been considering Anandpur Sahib as a non-negotiable seat. “The party which has a panthic policy cannot, at any cost, leave the seat that is the birth place of the Khalsa,” he said.

A postgraduate in political science, he is known to have not even spared his own. 

As a Congress leader, he took up the Amritsar Improvement Trust scam case, became a witness in the matter and even spoke against Capt Amarinder Singh. Bir Devinder was ousted after his write-up appeared in an English daily against Amarinder.

He was barely 29 when he became Congress MLA from Sirhind in 1980. He again had a stint in the Akali Dal in 2008 when he was denied ticket by the Congress in preceding Assembly poll. The two-time MLA has also shared the dais with Manpreet Badal’s previous outfit People’s Party of Punjab. In the 2017 poll, he had backed Aam Aadmi Party.

BSP hints at going solo

The Anandpur Sahib seat has been a point of conflict between the SAD Taksali and the BSP in the seat-sharing plan. Hinting at going solo, BSP state in-charge Randhir Beniwal said: “SAD Taksali has shown impatience by going ahead. As of now, we are readying candidates for all 13 Lok Sabha seats.”