No faces yet, Congress, SAD lose edge in race

Tribune News Service

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, April 21

The Aam Aadmi Party and BJP have taken a lead over their rivals, the Shiromani Akali Dal and Congress, which are yet to announce their candidates for the Khadoor Sahib parliamentary seat. Their nominees have been campaigning across this border constituency since long. On the other hand, voters are yet to see the faces of the candidates of SAD and the Congress.

SITTING CONG MP NOT TO CONTEST

• While AAP has nominated its minister Laljit Bhullar as the candidate, the BJP announced former Akali MLA from Baba Bakala Manjit Singh Manna Mianwind as its candidate for the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat
• The names of senior SAD leaders, including Bikram Singh Majithia and Harmeet Singh Sandhu, who was elected MLA thrice from Tarn Taran from 2002 to 2017, are doing the rounds. Congress sitting MP Jasbir Singh Gill Dimpa will not contest election this time

Sitting Congress MP Jasbir Singh Gill announced that he would not contest the election whereas AAP had named its minister Laljit Singh Bhullar as candidate from the seat. The BJP has named former Akali MLA from Baba Bakala Manjit Singh Manna Mianwind as its candidate.

Now, the Congress and SAD are the only big parties left to announce their candidates.

The Khadoor Sahib seat is considered a mini Punjab as its nine Assembly segments are spread across all three regions of Majha, Doaba and Malwa in four districts. Its two segments — Baba Bakala and Jandiala Guru — fall in Amritsar district; Kapurthala and Sultanpur Lodhi segments are in Kapurthala district Zira in Ferozepur and the remaining four segments, Tarn Taran city, Khadoor Sahib, Khemkaran and Patti, are in Tarn Taran district.

The Khadoor Sahib seat is home to several historic Sikh shrines. So a large number of devotees pay a visit to the area after paying obeisance at Golden Temple. A long pending demand of developing the Hari Ke Pattan wetland to attract tourists and to bolster its predominantly agrarian economy remains unmet.

Sitting Congress MP Gill on a social media platform has announced that he would not contest the General Election this time. This paved the way for several leaders to stake claims for the ticket. The name of Rana Inder Pratap Singh, an Independent MLA from Sultanpur Lodhi, is doing the rounds. He is the son of senior Congress leader Rana Gurjeet Singh, who is the MLA from Kapurthala. Both Sultanpur Lodhi and Kapurthala fall in Khadoor Sahib. The names of several other Congress leaders are also being considered.

Days after AAP announced its minister Laljit Singh Bhullar as party candidate from the seat, the BJP today announced former MLA from Baba Bakala Manjit Singh Manna Mianwind as its candidate. Former Akali leader, who is considered a Dalit leader in the district, won the Baba Bakala seat in 2012. His name figured in an incident of brawl in 2015 near the Khalchian police station.

The Khadoor Sahib seat is considered an Akali bastion. This time, the names of senior Akali leaders, including former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Bikram Singh Majithia, Harmeet Singh Sandhu, who was elected MLA thrice from Tarn Taran Assembly seat from 2002 to 2017, are doing the rounds.

AAP Lok Sabha nominee Bhullar was rewarded with a ministry for having routed four-time SAD MLA Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon and one-time Congress MLA Harminder Singh Gill from the Patti Assembly constituency in 2022. He is also a commission agent of grains, besides having the advantage of a large extended family.

From being an Akali in his early political career, he switched to the Congress during the sacrilege incidents. He is not new to controversies. Recently, addressing a party meeting in Patti, he made disparaging remarks against two communities, who have a sizable population in the region. After becoming the Transport Minister, he had landed himself in soup when a video went viral in which he made two of his security personnel dangle out of the windows of a speeding SUV while getting himself filmed seated on its rooftop.

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