By Surinder Gosain
Chandigarh: As Punjab is preparing itself for the Lok Sabha elections on April 30, there has been a confused melee within both the major political parties — the Congress and the BJP – on allocation of seats. Both the parties have fielded surprise candidates in most of the constituencies.
It all began with the Amritsar constituency. The BJP has fielded Arun Jaitley by replacing Navjot Singh Sidhu, the three-time sitting MP. He will be contesting his first-ever election against the former Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh, earlier reluctant to contest. Both of them are expected to give a tough fight to each other.
The contest is going to be interesting between the two protagonists. Much to the delight of Captain Amarinder Singh, Sidhu has categorically refused to campaign for Jaitley,
Here, AAP factor will also come into play, who has fielded a popular eye surgeon of the city, Daljit Singh.
By fielding the heavyweight Ambika Soni in Anandpur Sahib in place of Ravneet Singh Bittu, the sitting Congress MP, Congress seems to be repositioning its strength. The SAD leader Prem Singh Chandumajra may give her a tough fight considering the BSP’s good base in the constituency and its candidate K.S. Makhan, a Punjabi singer, is expected to play a major role.
Besides, AAP candidate, HImmat Singh Shergill will also make a dent in votes of the two major contestants. Shergill is a lawyer by profession and is fighting in the Supreme Court for Sikh farmers in Gujarat free-of cost.
Bathinda will see battle of two family members. Manpreet Badal is the nephew of the present Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, and a rebel who was ousted from the Shiromani Akali Dal in 2010.
Manpreet is fighting with the support of Congress. Harsimrat Kaur Badal is the wife of the Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal, who has a stronghold in the constituency and, seemingly, may come out to be a cakewalk for Harsimrat.
In Gurdaspur constituency, Bollywood actor Vinod Khanna of BJP will contest against his Congress rival Pratap Singh Bajwa. Both are stalwarts and Bajwa had defeated Khanna in the last elections by a narrow margin.
There is going to be tough fight again between the two. The role of BSP and AAP candidates may not make much difference in the contest because of the stature of BJP and Congress candidates.
Manish Tewari, spokesman of the Congress party, is reportedly sick and has excused himself from contesting in Ludhiana. The party has announced Ravneet Singh Bittu, grandson of the slain leader, Beant Singh, in his place. He will mainly fight against the SAD leader Manpreet Singh Aayali.
The contest may turn out to be interesting with the presence of HS Phoolka, AAP, Navjot Singh Garg, BSP and Sukhvinder Singh Sekhon, CPM.
The selection of Sunil Jakhar by the Congress in Ferozepur has irked its senior party leader Rana Gurmeet Sodhi. He has expressed lack of coordination among the party leaders. He will be fighting against the SAD candidate and sitting MP Sher Singh Ghubaya.
The contest is going to be exciting between the two candidates. BSP is making its presence with Raj Kumar Prajapati.
In Patiala, the SAD has fielded Deepinder Singh Dhillon. He was a close aide of the Congress candidate Perneet Kaur at one time. He parted company from Congress in 2012 after denial of Congress ticket to him in the Assembly elections.
Although AAP and BSP candidates are also there in the fray in Dr Dharamvira Gandhi and Ram Singh Dhiman respectively, it seems to be a Congress seat as of now.
Khadoor Sahib Constituency came into being only in 2009. The Congress has pitted a former Akali leader, accused of militancy, Harminder Singh Gill against the SAD leader Ranjit Singh Brahampura. AAP and BSP are also present in Bhai Baldev Singh and Sucha Singh Mann.
In Sangrur, Congress has fielded its loyalist Vijay Inder Singla against the SAD leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa. The contest has become curious with the induction of Bhagwant Mann from AAP in the fray. He is claiming to have declined offer of SAD ticket to see Punjab free of corruption.
There are four constituencies that are reserved for SC candidates:
Jalandhar is represented by the Congress candidate Santosh Singh Chaudhary fielded against the SAD leader Pawan Tinu. BSP has fielded Sukhvinder Singh Kotli. Chaudhary is a sitting MP from Hoshiarpur constituency while Pawan Tinu is an elected member of the Assembly from Adampur and considered to be crusader for the SC causes.
Mohinder Singh Kaypee has been shifted from Jalandhar to Hoshiarpur to contest against the BJP candidate Vijay Sampla. BSP here also has a presence in Bhagwan Singh Chauhan. Kaypee had defeated the famous singer Hans Raj Hans from Jalandhar in the last Lok Sabha elections. Sampla is a prominent Dalit leader and may give tough fight to Kaypee. But the BSP presence will cut into his vote bank.
Sadhu Singh Dharamsot is a leader of Goaar community and President of the All India Bazigar-Banjara Sabha. He has been fielded by the Congress from Fatehgarh Sahib against the SAD leader Kulwant Singh, who was once accused by the SAD of getting favours from the then Congress Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh. Changing its stance, SAD is projecting Kulwant as a “clean” man. The BSP leader Sarbjeet Singh Khalsa seems merely a presence in the contest. He is the son Beant Singh, one of the Indira Gandhi’s assassins.
Faridkot is stronghold of SAD and is represented by the sitting MP Paramjeet Kaur Gulshan. In the last elections, she had defeated the Congress candidate by margin of over 60,000 votes. This time there is going to be close contest between her Congress rival Joginder Singh Panjgrain since the three-time MLA of SAD Sheetal Singh has decided to contest as an independent candidate. Prof. Sadhu Singh of AAP may play a major role in this constituency.
– South Asia Post, Chandigarh
