Rebel for self cause, fails to impress

He is desperately trying for a Congress ticket this time after falling off with SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, but chances are not bright as there is formidable opposition to him within the ruling party

FEROZEPUR: The rebellion by Sher Singh Ghubaya against his party chief has cost the constituency dear. Elected as an MP on a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) ticket, Ghubaya’s terms with the first family of his party, Badals, turned sour soon after his second win from the seat in 2014. The MP could not bring anything big for the constituency even as his party is an alliance partner of the NDA government at the Centre.

His constituency, most part of which is along the international border with Pakistan, still remains neglected as far the new development projects are concerned.

His son Davinder Ghubaya joined the Congress and became an MLA from Fazilka in 2017. However, Sher Singh didn’t quit the SAD even though he canvassed openly for the Congress in the assembly polls and apparently did not switch the party for fear of losing his Lok Sabha membership because of anti-defection law.

He was once a trusted aide of SAD chief Sukhbir Badal and had vacated the Jalalabad assembly seat which he represented then for his party president. Equations between the two, however, are at the lowest ebb and Ghubaya now sees Sukhbir as his ‘number one enemy’. He claims he was ‘humiliated’ by the SAD chief at the fag end of the previous SAD-BJP government and a vigilance bureau team had raided an engineering college run by him.

Just ahead of the 2017 assembly polls, a video-clip allegedly showing the MP in an intimate position with a woman also surfaced, which kept Ghubaya busy in defending himself rather than working for the welfare of the voters.

Though Ghubaya is now eying a Congress ticket from the seat but things are not moving smoothly for him as some senior leaders, including sports minister Rana Gurmeet Sodhi, are against his candidature. In the 2014 polls, Ghubaya had defeated Jakhar from the seat.

“Ghubaya’s performance as an MP has been a big zero. He has done nothing for the people of the segment in the last 10 years. He kept on defending himself only. He should come out and explain has he ever spoken inside the Parliament about issues of opening up of Hussainiwala border for trade or for bringing any project to create employment for those living along the border,” said Sodhi, who is a fourtime MLA from Guru Har Sahai.

CASTE SHADOW

Actually, it is the ‘caste’ that has worked for Ghubaya in the last two polls. Once a munshi (accountant) at a brick kiln and now a multi-millionaire parliamentarian, he is vying for a third term in the Lok Sabha. Ghubaya belongs to the Rai Sikh community (SC) which has sizeable strength in the segment. There is a perception that the community votes en bloc for Ghubaya and considers him as the “pride of Rai Sikhs”.

Numbers also authenticate this claim. In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Ghubaya took a lead of 32,888 votes from Jalalabad assembly segment which is represented by SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. Besides, he also took lead of 10,047 and 9,428 votes from Fazilka and Guru Har Sahai assembly segments, respectively. All these segments are dominated by Rai Sikhs.

However, many in the constituency say it is only a ‘myth’ created by Ghubaya. “The MP has only used Rai Sikhs as his votebank. There is hardly anything that he has done for the community,” claims Gurnam Singh, a Rai Sikh motor mechanic from Jalalabad .

Ram Sharma, a grocery trader of Ferozepur Cantonment, however, thinks, Ghubaya’s priority has always been the welfare of Rai Sikhs and he hardly care for the urban areas. “A major chunk of his MPLAD funds has gone to the areas where Rai Sikhs are dominating,” said Sharma.

Ghubaya’s efforts to make water tanks in villages using MPLAD funds have also remained in news for the wrong reasons. “The quality of these tanks was very bad and they were procured from Ghubaya’s men, made huge money out of this,” said SAD’s Ferozepur Urban president Montu Vohra.

In the name of big-ticket projects, Ghubaya has to his credit only a passport centre that was inaugurated recently.

Many also accuse Ghubaya of patronising ‘criminal elements’ in the Rai Sikh community.

His opponents in the Congress claim that when he was powerful in SAD, Ghubaya got many Congressmen booked in false cases to settle political scores.

Congress has not won this seat since 1985 and SAD has not lost the seat in the last five consecutive terms.

Ghubaya has been an utter failure as an MP. He has done nothing for the people of the segment in the last 10 years. He should explain has he ever spoken inside the Parliament about issues concerning the people of his constituency? RANA GURMEET SODHI, Congress leader and Punjab sports minister