Cong picks Dera Baba Nanak to ensure victory in Gurdaspur
Wednesday, 06/03/2019
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/cong-picks-dera-baba-nanak-to-ensure-victory-in-gurdaspur/738713.html
Dera Baba Nanak : With the Kartarpur Sahib corridor project in mind, the Congress has chosen to concentrate on the Dera Baba Nanak Assembly segment of the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency to ensure maximum advantage in the coming polls. The announcement on sitting Member of Parliament Sunil Jakhar’s candidature is but a mere formality, say senior leaders.
During the 2017 byelection, Dera Baba Nanak voters had thrown their weight behind Jakhar, giving him a whopping lead of 44,000 votes against his BJP rival. The Congress hopes to further widen this margin by stressing on the Kartarpur Sahib corridor project, the developmental initiatives by Cabinet Minister and sitting MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and the ‘inability’ of the SAD to field a leader worth his salt against Jakhar. Akali stalwart Sucha Singh Langah, who alone had the ability to take on Randhawa, has been in political wilderness ever since a video featuring him with a woman surfaced in 2017.
“Randhawa’s move to convert the main street into a heritage street and to shift the grain market to the city’s outskirts has won him immense praise and support. Also, Kalanaur now has a degree college, which had been a long-pending demand. Bringing government offices under one roof has pleased the locals too,” pointed out Dera Baba Nanak resident Harnek Singh.
The MLA said he was trying to bring big ticket projects to Kalanaur for which the 1,200 acres of panchayat land could be put to use. “Besides a facelift for the Dera Baba Nanak railway station, we have been pushing for a rail wheel factory (RWF) like the one in Bangalore,” Randhawa told The Tribune.
Congress leaders believe that projects such as the RWF, which would generate hundreds of jobs, would also help the party candidate at the hustings.
