Sukhbir’s spin queers Congress pitch in Ferozepur constituency

Sunday, 31/03/2019

http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

CHANDIGARH: If reports of contesting Ferozepur are just a spin of Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal, it seems to have achieved the intended. The ruling Congress is in a tizzy over the candidate even as an internal battle has broken out between rival camps staking a claim to the seat.

Sukhbir’s strategy to contest from an Akali bastion is as much to emerge out of the shadows of the sacrilege row that has dented his party’s Panthic credentials as to pin his staunchest political rival, Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, to his previous battlefield. Jakhar, who won Gurdaspur seat in a bypoll after death of actor Vinod Khanna of the BJP in April 2017, is not keen to fight from Ferozepur after his loss in 2014 parliamentary elections.

But Sukhbir is daring Jakhar daily to contest from Ferozepur. Sukhbir’s wife, Union minister Harsimrat Badal, may stick to Bathinda if Sukhbir fights from Ferozepur. Jakhar had led a frontal attack against Sukhbir after the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) panel had indicted the previous Badal regime for police firing incidents after the sacrilege row.

Sports minister Rana Gurmit Sodhi, a loyalist of CM Captain Amarinder, is lobbying for ticket from Ferozepur after Jakhar changed his poll turf. The latter is opposed to Sodhi’s nomination and is pushing for a youth Hindu face, Raminder Awla, a former Punjab Youth Congress chief.

Though Amarinder is already batting for Sodhi, the minister on Saturday held a show of strength before the CM. He was accompanied by deputy speaker in Punjab assembly Ajaib Singh Bhatti and MLAs Satkar Kaur and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, along with local leaders. They opposed the candidature of Awla describing him as an outsider.

He had earlier met the CM with Rinwa, Joshan and Sadana to protest allotment of ticket to “turncoat” Sher Singh Ghubaya who has jumped the Akali ship and joined the Congress. Sodhi was denied the ticket in the last parliamentary polls.

Sodhi said the local leaders met the CM to convey that they all supported him. On perception that he is close to Badals, Sodhi said he has always followed Congress ethics and will not hesitate to fight Sukhbir head on. A leader who attended the meeting said the CM heard them for over oneand-half hours and understood the religion and caste arithmetic of the seat.

Warring later said he is not a part of any camp. “I am willing to take on the Badals from either Ferozepur or Bathinda if the party asks me to,” the former Youth Congress president said.

But Sodhi’s perceived proximity to the Badals may not work in favour of the Congress. “It will reinforce the feeling that Amarinder is playing a fixed match with Sukhbir through Sodhi,” one of the MLAs said, requesting anonymity. The seats of Ferozepur and Bathinda were not taken up for discussion by the state screening comprising Amarinder, Jakhar and general secretaries Asha Kumari and KC Venugopal during their meeting this week as the party has decided to wait for Akalis to show their cards first.

Jakhar said Sodhi is a fourtime MLA and a formidable candidate. “I will support anybody the party fields. As for Sukhbir, it is his arrogance which has led to Akali Dal’s downfall. His contesting (Ferozepur) does not make a difference. I will contest from wherever my party asks me to,” Jakhar said.

In case of Bathinda, minister Vijay Inder Singla, who comes from the Bania community and is being seen as a likely contender, said he is not interested in fighting the LS polls. Amarinder is learnt to have told Singla that he cannot spare him, to make way for his loyalist Kewal Dhillon from Sangrur seat, which Singla won in 2009 but lost in 2014. With finance minister Manpreet Badal too not keen to contest Bathinda and former Chandigarh MP Pawan Kumar Bansal too refusing the offer to give up claim over Chandigarh seat for Bathinda, the Congress’ hunt for candidates seems to have only begun.