The electoral activity in the Bathinda Lok Saba constituency gained momentum after the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced their candidates.
Congress nominee Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu and the saffron party’s candidate Parampal Kaur Sidhu held meetings with their respective district leaders and office bearers on Tuesday to chalk out campaigning strategy.
Four-time legislator from Talwandi Sabo and a party hopper Jeet Mohinder Sidhu told reporters that the entire district unit is ready to contest the election sinking all differences.
“I am confident that my political rival in the party Khushbaz Jattana will also work with me and help the Congress party in winning the seat. Several leaders had an ambition to get the Lok Sabha seat and now we will work as a team and there is no rivalry now. I met Amrita Warring, wife of state Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, to thank her for working in the field for party months before the candidate was decided,” he said.
Hitting at the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Sidhu said that the Akali leadership has accepted a defeat with an inordinate delay in declaring the name of the Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who has been representing the seat since 2009.
“SAD is indulged in political gimmickry by falsely claiming that I was expelled from the party. It is a matter of record that I quit the SAD in October, of last year. The Badal family is scared by the ground reality that they have lost the political ground in Bathinda and hesitant to field Harsimrat for the fourth time,” he added.
In 2002, Sidhu won the Talwandi Sabo seat as an independent candidate defeating Congress’ Harminder Singh Jassi while in 2007 and 2012, he won as a Congress candidate. Later, he shifted his loyalties to Akalis and again defeated Jassi with a record margin in 2014.
However, in 2017, the veteran politician faced an electoral debacle when he lost to AAP’s Baljnder Kaur, a novice, and finished third.
In the last state assembly polls, Sidhu was defeated again by Baljinder by over 15,000 votes.
After a formal announcement of candidature, Parampal Kaur Sidhu said that credit for the overall development in Bathinda goes squarely to the NDA-led centre government.
“Mega development works like All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Central University of Punjab and a web of quality national highways are the central projects which were undertaken in the past 10 years of the BJP. Several BJP-governed states like the UP have witnessed tremendous development. Punjab missed a similar chance and we will work together to strengthen the party in the state,” she added.
The BJP candidate credited PM Narendra Modi for working for women empowerment and giving opportunities to the women in allocation of seats in the LS elections.
The bureaucrat-turned-politician blamed the SAD for enjoying political positions at the cost of veteran Akali leaders.
“My father-in-law Sikander Singh Maluka was among those who worked hard to make the SAD a powerful force. But over the years, the Badal family kept the power only within their family,” she added.
Credit: Source link