Campaign trail: Congress candidate from Amritsar Gurjeet Singh Aujla aiming for a hat-trick in Lok Sabha polls

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, May 20

Earning the epithet of “Singh is King” for confronting one of the two intruders who jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitors’ gallery, Congress candidate for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat Gurjeet Singh Aujla is aiming for a hat-trick from the seat in the upcoming General Elections.

He won the 2017 bypoll, which was necessitated after Captain Amarinder Singh vacated the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat. Aujla had earned goodwill of Amarinder during his campaigning against BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley from the Amritsar seat. Two years later in the 2019 General Elections, he again won the poll.

For this reason, he has become a target of his opponents who do not want him to win for the third time. His opponent Anil Joshi of the SAD is targeting him for his failure to cover the open drain passing through the backyard of his house. BJP nominee Taranjit Singh Sandhu takes potshots at Aujla for his failure to bring AIIMS project to the holy city. Obviously, these questions have been raised to put him on the defensive.

To deny his opponents an edge, Aujla has devised an 18-hour-long campaigning schedule for every day with intermissions for lime breaks to beat the heatwave. Up at 5 am, Aujla visits the rural areas of the district where he empathises with farmers. During campaigning in the rural belt, he hears several issues raised by the people that include drug addiction, scandals by micro financing companies and reduction in quantity of grain from 25 kg to 5 kg that are distributed among beneficiaries through the public distribution system.

Aujla has been promising to resolve these issues after the formation of his government. So far, he has held at least 30 rallies in remote parts of the district.

In the five Assembly segments of the district, his family members are going door-to-door while Aujla has been holding rallies. Aujla says, “In the urban segment, I have found that garbage lifting is tardy, quality of potable water has deteriorated and streetlights are not functional. High population of stray dogs is another issue which residents are facing.” He said delay in holding elections for the municipal corporation had added to city residents’ woes.

Aujla winds up his day after a meeting with his close associates’ during which matters to be taken up in his speeches to counter his opponents are discussed.