The fight in Gidderbaha cannot get bigger than this. Even as the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal may field someone from the family to take on family rebel Manpreet Badal in Gidderbaha, the Congress too has an ace up its sleeve, albeit a namesake — Amarinder Singh.
In 1967, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal contested from Gidderbaha for the first time and lost to former Congress CM Harcharan Singh Brar. Since then, he won the seat consecutively till 1987. The seat was passed on from Badal, who contested it five times, to Manpreet in the 1995 bypoll. Since then it has been won by Manpreet in subsequent polls.
He resigned this year following his ouster from the government and the party. In all these years, the faction-ridden Gidderbaha Congress won the family seat of the Badals only once, that too, when Akalis boycotted the polls in 1992. Midway during his tenure, Congress MLA Raghubir Singh had to resign following his conviction by the Supreme Court in a criminal case and Gidderbaha went for a bypoll in 1995.
The Congress fielded his son, who lost to first-timer Manpreet. In subsequent polls, Raghubir Singh lost twice — in 2002 and then in 2007, as a fallout of one of the Congress contenders, Sant Brar, contesting as an Independent and polling 28,000 votes against Raghubir’s 34,000. With no contender who can stake a claim to the seat on past victories, the Congress is keen to field a youth leader and Amarinder Singh Raja Warring — a All India Youth Congress general secretary — is the frontrunner. Warring, who started his political career under Congress Working Committee member Jagmeet Brar, also has the support of state Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh.
A Bachelor of Arts from Panjab University, Chandigarh, Raja has no family history of politics. He says his first brush with politics was during his college days in Chandigarh during Haryana Congress minister Randeep Surjewala hey days in Panjab University. “I became the Punjab Youth Congress block president and later, the district president of Muktsar,” he says.
In the Congress rally last Thursday, Raja did all it takes to clinch the party ticket. His pictures lined up the road leading to the rally ground and he squatted on the dias before state party in-charge Gulchain Singh Charak, Amarinder and Brar for that perfect picture opportunity to be seen as the choice of the party top brass. But it may not be a smooth sail to the party ticket. Other than Raghubir Singh, there are other claimants, such as Sant Brar who may yet again contest as an Independent if denied a ticket.
There is also Harcharan Singh -- uncle of Raja -- the only candidate on whom there could be a consensus as he has an non-controversial image. Another claimant is Malkit Singh, who lost to Manpreet in 1997. “There was no beating Manpreet. He won with a bigger margin each time, as the Congress votes were divided. But this time, it is just the opposite. The different Congress factions have united and the Akali votes have split. This division of votes will go in our favour. We have taken an oath in the historical Kauni village gurdwara that we will stand united behind whoever the party decides to field from the constituency,” says Gurdas Girdhar, the president of District Congress Committee, Muktsar.
But unlike the “Maharaja” he is seen with in pictures, this Raja is still a politician in the making. He may not be able to tackle opposition from within the party, even though he did manage to make the right noises during his brief speech. “In 40 years of Badal family rule, Gidderbaha — their home turf — has become the cancer belt of the state but has no good hospitals. There is no industry or facilities like sports stadiums for the youth. Manpreet is remembering martyr Bhagat Singh suddenly after 46 years of his birth. I challenge the CM to contest from Gidderbaha. The stronger the Akali Dal candidate, the better. But no Badal will win again from here,” he said.
But Manpreet contends that in a three-corner contest, he gains. “We were Akali Dal’s best ammunition. The Congress is only looking united till the ticket is announced. Gidderbaha will witness either a pro-Manpreet or anti-Manpreet vote,” he says. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, in his sangat darshan programmes in Gidderbaha, takes a satirical dig at his cousin’s choice of name for his party. “The acronym for Manpreet’s party is PPP, which is what I once saw written outside a theka (liquor shop),” he says while referring to drinking, the word’s other connotation in Punjabi parlance.