With campaigning gradually picking up in Punjab’s Ferozepur, the constituency which shares international border with Pakistan and is a Shiromani Akali Dal bastion, the public anger against the SAD on the Kotkapura-Behbal Kalan police firing incidents of 2015 which followed the “Bargari sacrilege” seems to have toned down.
The ruling Congress, though, is in no mood to let the issues fade away, and is making all efforts to corner the SAD, which saw its worst-ever electoral defeat in the 2017 Assembly elections.
Sitting at a roadside tea stall at Ferozepur town’s Zira Gate, septuagenarian Bikar Das is discussing the political scenario and prospects of candidates with others. “While most of the promises made by politicians are not fulfilled, I still feel this (NDA) government has done a few things that are commendable. In my village, many families now cook food using gas cylinders instead of chullah ,” says Mr. Das, who hails from Gillanwala village three kms from Ferozepur town.
PM’s good work
He adds that the Akali Dal — BJP’s alliance partner — will benefit from the ‘good’ work done by the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Also the anger against the Akali leaders has subsided... if I vote for Sukhbir who could be the next CM, it will eventually help the entire constituency.”
Nodding his head in agreement, Pipal Singh, the tea vendor, adds, “The Akalis have an edge over others... also, they (Akali leadership) have atoned for their mistakes at the Akal Takht.”
SAD president and former Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, the sitting MLA from Jalalabad which falls in the Ferozepur Lok Sabha constituency, is the party candidate for the LS election. Congress has fielded sitting Ferozepur MP Shamsher Singh Ghubaya. Mr. Ghubaya had won the 2014 parliamentary poll as an Akali candidate but had recently joined the Congress.
Baljinder Singh, who runs an electronic repair shop in the main market, says, “Mr. Ghubaya was MP twice on the Akali Dal ticket and now he has switched to the Congress. This will make it difficult for the Congress. I think if Mr. Badal wins, it will benefit the town as he is a senior leader and a probable Chief Ministerial.”
Congress leaders are targeting the Akali Dal on the “sacrileges” issue.
In Fazilka, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had said, “Badals are scared in the face of imminent defeat... Punjab has been through bad times, which the Badals aggravated with their divisive agenda and attempts to create hatred.”
