Not elected unanimously, MLA’s daughter pulls out

Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, December 26

With the post of sarpanch remaining in the family for nearly three decades, Congress MLA from Kartarpur Chaudhary Surinder Singh could not gather unanimous support for his younger daughter Navinder this time from his native Dhaliwal Qadian village. Her papers were ultimately withdrawn.

The village that falls in Jalandhar West block has 1,522 voters, of whom about 5 per cent are reportedly settled abroad. Other than Navinder, two more candidates — Ram Kumar, a lyricist, and Mandeep Kumar, who has been panch earlier — filed their papers. Since the MLA wanted his daughter to win without a contest, he took her papers back.

If Navinder, who is a graduate, made it to the post, she would have been the sixth member of her family to have become the sarpanch of the village. The MLA’s grandfather and former minister Master Gurbanta Singh had started his political career as a sarpanch in the 1950s. His son and former minister Chaudhary Jagjit Singh too had opted to be sarpanch first before taking bigger roles.

After the two stalwarts, Chaudhary Jagjit Singh’s wife Gurbachan Kaur too remained the sarpanch. In 1980, Chaudhary Surinder Singh became sarpanch and remained on the post for 18 years. When he became the Zila Parishad chairman, his wife Varinder Kaur too joined the bandwagon.

Since the MLA’s elder daughter Yashwinder is married and her husband is a DSP in Kharar, she could not contest this time. “My son Damanvir was just two months short of being 21, so he was ineligible. When I picked my daughter for the polls, two more people came insisting that they wanted to contest. Then I thought it would be better to withdraw Navinder’s papers,” he said.