Defiant Rana Sodhi pitches self, son from Ferozepur
CHANDIGARH : With race for the tickets for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls hotting up in the Congress, state sports minister Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi too has thrown his hat in the ring by pitching himself and his elder son Anumit Singh alias Hira Sodhi as “winnable candidates” from the Ferozepur segment.
He also asked the party to rethink its ‘one-family, oneticket’ rule saying the deserving candidates will simply be left out because of their kinship to ministers, MPs or MLAs. “Winnability should decide whether one should get the party ticket. We will request the party high command to rethink the decision,” he said. Sodhi, who represents the Guru Har Sahai segment of Ferozepur district in the state assembly, was in contention for the ticket in the last general elections too.
But it went to Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar who lost to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)’s Sher Singh Ghubaya. Jakhar, however, went on to win the Gurdaspur parliamentary bypoll in 2017 when it fell vacant after the death of actor-politician Vinod Khanna. Jakhar has now declared Gurdaspur to be his only choice.
Claiming support of Rai Sikhs, the community with dominant vote share in Ferozepur, Sodhi says he had pressed for scheduled caste (SC) status to them during the previous stint of Amarinder Singh as chief minister.
“It was due to the CM and the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi that Rai Sikhs were included among SCs in 2006. They respect our family and both me and my son are winnable candidates from the seat. I will bring these facts before the CM and the party high command. But the final decision rests with the high command,” Sodhi said.
Rana’s son Anumit, 43, had recently raised the hackles of the Congress high command by filing a petition in the Punjab and Haryana high court against the movie, The Accidental Prime Minister, based on former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh. Anumit had reportedly not taken the party’s permission before doing so and had to withdraw it after a call from chief minister Amarinder Singh.
“The CM told me the party wants the people to see the movie and they should decide for themselves. So I withdrew the petition. I was not forced to do so,” Anumit said.
Though he runs an export business and owns educational institutes, Anumit says he has been active in state politics for the last 20 years. “I started off as Youth Congress vice-president,” he said. With both opposition parties — Aam Aadmi Party and SAD — battling internal revolts, the ruling Congress is seeing Ferozepur, a seat it has failed to win since 1989, as a safe bet this time. It was won by former Lok Sabha speaker Balram Jakhar in 1980 and 1985. But after 1989, the seat turned a fortress of Rai Sikhs and elected Mohan Singh Fallainwala of the Bahujan Samaj Party and later Ghubaya.
Now a rebel, Ghubaya too is keen to contest on a Congress ticket. His son Devinder had joined the Congress in the run-up to the 2017 assembly polls and won from Fazilka.
But Sodhi questions Ghabaya’s locus standi to seek a Congress nomination. “Ghubaya is neither in the Akali Dal nor in the Congress. He was campaigning for the Akalis in the recently held panchayat polls and also shared stage with the rebel faction, SAD (Taksali). How can he claim a ticket from the Congress now?” he said.