Hopeful of repeating its '89 feat, Simranjit Singh Mann's Akali Dal fighting for open trade with Pakistan

Charanjit Singh Teja

Amritsar, February 10

Hopeful of repeating its 1989 feat, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), generally known as Akali Dal Mann founded by Simranjit Singh Mann in 1994, is contesting on eight Assembly seats of Amritsar district and total 87 seats in the state.

Their main agenda this time is to relax the border between India and Pakistan for open trade and hence candidates are asking urban voters to cast votes in their favour.

Those contesting are Harpal from Amritsar East, Pritpal Singh from Amritsar South, Davinder Singh from Amritsar North and Onkar Singh from Amritsar Central. One of the party candidates had filed the nominations from West constituency as well, but it got rejected due to some technical issue.

Others in the fray from rural seats are Amrik Singh Nangal from Ajnala, Natha Singh from Baba Bakala, Baksish Singh Uppal from Jandiala and Kulwant Singh Kotla Gujjran from Majitha. No candidate from these seats faces any criminal case, reportedly.

Amrik Singh Nangal, district president of SAD (A) and candidate from Ajnala, said the party has its own manifesto, which is different from other parties.

“We are seriously concerned with human rights. Punjab faced discrimination from the division of Punjab during Partition in 1947 and division of Punjab in 1966. We fought for the river waters of Punjab, Punjabi speaking areas, Chandigarh as Punjab’s capital and on federal structure of the nation. But it doesn’t mean that we don’t have any concern for other issues. We are regularly fighting for education and employment of Punjabi youth, farmers’ rights and those of small shopkeepers in the state.”

Pritpal Singh, candidate of SAD (A) from Amritsar South, said: “We don’t have much financial resources to spend on hoardings and posters. Most of our candidates are common people, who have worked hard and are contesting the elections to express concern with society.”

A leaf from history

Simaranjit Singh Mann resigned from the Indian Police Services in June 1984, while protesting against the attack on Akal Takht. Later, he was blamed for murder conspiracy of the then PM Indira Gandhi and jailed for five years. When he was in jail, he contested the 1989 Lok Sabha election, and he along with five other party candidates won. In 1994, Mann formally constituted the SAD (A) and won the Lok Sabha seat in 1999 from Sangrur. Later, the voting graph of the party kept falling over the years.