Anti-farmer wave, no tie-up with SAD led to BJP's debacle in 4 rural segments

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, June 4

The anti-farmer wave against the BJP and parting ties with the SAD denied its candidate Taranjit Singh Sandhu gains in the four rural constituencies of the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat.

Congress winning candidate Gurjeet Singh Aujla bagged 1,15,921 votes in all the four rural segments. The combined vote share of estranged alliance partner the BJP and the SAD was 1,53,908 in these rural segments. Here, the SAD ate into the vote share of the BJP as it was for the first time that it contested on its own from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat.

With a view to win over agitating farmers of the border district, who had enthusiastically taken part in the anti-farm law movement stretched across a year on Delhi borders, the BJP fielded a Sikh face, a diplomat turned politician Taranjit Singh Sandhu, whose family’s legacy was associated with the Gurdwara ‘Sudhar Lehar’ (Gurdwara Reform Movement) and founding member of the SGPC. The move put the SAD in a tight spot on its home turf.

Harping on his family’s legacy, former Ambassador to the USA introduced himself as Sandhu-Samundri. This reintroduction aimed at influencing the Sikh populace, especially in the rural areas and to identify Sandhu with his grandfather Sardar Teja Singh Samundri in whose name a hall had been named in the Golden Temple complex. Teja Singh Samundri died in a Lahore prison at the age of 44 in July, 1926. He left an enduring legacy in the Sikh circle. His entire poll campaign in the rural areas projected him as Sandhu-Samundri and slogans were also composed using this name.

However, the irate farmers did not buy the idea as Sandhu did not win any of the four Assembly segments. The Congress clinched two Assembly segments of Attari and Rajasansi. The AAP had to be satisfied with one Ajnala Assembly seat from where its candidate Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal comes and the SAD won Majitha seat.