High-stakes battle on cards as two docs, realtor take on turncoat royal
Sitting MP Preneet Kaur’s switch to the Bharatiya Janata Party changed the poll dynamics in the royal city, making it a high stakes battle for the Congress, Aam Adami Party and Shiromani Akali Dal.
While Congress responded by inducting former AAP MP and philanthropist Dr Dharamvira Gandhi, who defeated Preneet in the 2014 Parliamentary polls, Akali Dal has fielded a Hindu face and a realtor, NK Sharma. AAP, which took the lead in announcing the candidate, put its faith in cabinet minister Dr Balbir Singh.
Preneet, who followed her husband, Capt Amarinder Singh, to the saffron party, is a four-time MP from Patiala, having won in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2019.
The royal family clout in the constituency took a hit in the 2022 assembly polls, with AAP registering a sweeping win in all nine segments.
Congress’ Gandhi, who switched from AAP, is known for his social work. He defeated Preneet in 2014 and has a strong connection with the public due to his philanthropic activities and providing free healthcare to the needy and underprivileged.
He has been running an NGO for the past 30 years. Gandhi was suspended from AAP after he questioned the party’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal’s policies. In 2019, he contested Lok Sabha polls from Patiala but lost.
In the 2019 Parliamentary elections, Preneet Kaur had emerged victorious defeating SAD’s Surjit Singh Rakhra by a margin of 1.62 lakh votes.
Gandhi, contesting on Nawan Punjab Party ticket, had finished third with 1.61 lakh votes.
Despite being hand-picked by the Congress high command, Gandhi, it is learnt, is facing resentment as a few former Congress MLAs are not happy with his selection and have termed him a ‘turncoat’.
Gandhi, however, brushed the opposition aside and said: “It is a fight to save the country and not a marriage function. He would focus his energy on the electorate and not on pleasing the sulky relatives of the (Congress) family.”
Surprising many, Akali Dal, a panthic party, has fielded a Hindu face, NK Sharma.
Sharma has been a two-time MLA from Dera Bassi and is being viewed as an ‘outsider’. The 54-year-old was picked, as per reports, after SAD’s first choice former minister and a veteran leader Surjit Singh Rakhra expressed unwillingness to contest the elections.
Sharma is the youngest among the candidates in the fray and is known for having risen from the grassroots electoral politics winning the election of sarpanch in 1998. Sharma, who has already started his poll campaign, is targeting all three national parties – AAP, Congress, and BJP – for compromising the interests of the people of Punjab to please their national leaders in New Delhi.
Meanwhile, Dr Balbir Singh, the incumbent state health and medical education minister, is banking on the work of the two-year tenure of AAP in Punjab. He is an MLA from Patiala Rural and is among the five ministers in the poll fray for AAP in Punjab.