Panth on mind, Cong, Akalis to raise 2019 poll pitch today
Ruling party wants to corner Badals on sacrilege; Sukhbir aims to build cadre morale
CHANDIGARH: WITH the ruling Congress and the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) warming up for the 2019 parliamentary elections, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and his predecessor Parkash Singh Badal will address parallel rallies in each other’s constituencies on Sunday.
As poll winds are already blowing in Punjab, the ruling party is hoping to reap political dividends in the next year’s elections by cornering the Akalis with the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) Commission report on sacrilege incidents and police firing on Sikh protesters in Faridkot in 2015.
Amarinder, who was humbled by Badal at the latter’s bastion Lambi in the 2017 assembly polls, will go to the segment on Sunday for the first time after becoming CM.
Badal was indicted by the commission for police firing at Kotkapura on October 14, 2015. The report has also blamed Badal and his son and Shiromani Akali Dal president, Sukhbir Badal, for securing the Akal Takht’s pardon for Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, which it says, played the “role of catalyst” in the sacrilege incidents. Situated in Sikh-dominated Muktsar district, Lambi is also part of the Bathinda parliamentary seat which Sukhbir’s wife and Union minister Harsimrat Badal represents.
SAD has accused Amarinderled government of piggybacking on a “fabricated report as it has nothing to show on performance front”. But the party’s strategy so far has been, at the best, retaliatory. Sukhbir is matching the CM’S dare with a dare by holding a parallel rally at Amarinder’s bastion, Patiala, the same day. By resorting to “rally politics”, the SAD chief is trying to build morale of his party cadre and deflect the heat he is facing from Akali veterans who have openly questioned his leadership.
The rally at Lambi is as much Amarinder versus Badal as Badal versus Badal. State finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal is leading the preparations. While speaking during the debate on the commission’s report in the assembly, Manpreet had also accused his estranged uncle, former CM Badal, of “using panth for political gains”.
“The party has not held a big rally after coming to power. It is a great time to hold a rally in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections as the paddy harvest has yet to pick up. Also, Congress was a distant third in Bathinda district to the AAP and SAD during the 2017 polls. It is logical to hold a rally here to boost morale of our party men,” Manpreet says.
The internal politics of the Congress too is at play. It is the “Majha brigade” of ministers Tript Rajinder Bajwa, Sukhjinder Randhawa and Sukhbinder Sarkaria, all of whom with strong panthic leanings, who are setting the agenda. Though Congress leaders of more politically important Malwa resent it, they are not complaining openly. Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar too won from the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat, and is harping on the panthic agenda. Amarinder is targeting Badal, while Jakhar is targeting Sukhbir. As the Congress gives Akalis a run for their money on “rally politics”, poll promises can wait.
MINISTER MANPREET
BADAL, WHO RECENTLY ACCUSED BADAL SENIOR OF USING PANTH FOR POLITICAL GAINS, HAS BEEN LEADING THE PREPARATIONS AT LAMBI