Anandpur Sahib voters yet to make up mind in multi-cornered contest

Rajmeet Singh

Anandpur Sahib, May 26

At a nondescript marriage palace near the Chamkaur Sahib-Bela road, Dr Subhash Sharma — a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) old-timer and former ‘pracharak’ and now BJP’s candidate from Anandpur Sahib constituency — greets a small gathering of supporters with Sikh battle cry ‘’Jo Bhole So Nihal Sat Sri Akal’’ as he accepts a ‘siropa’ (robe of honour) from Sikh leaders.

Kept at bay by a strong posse of policemen outside the marriage palace, a group of farmers from Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal) raise the same battle cry, only to register their protest against the saffron party.

Key site in Sikh history

• Anandpur Sahib parliamentary segment is home to Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib, one of the five Takhts in Sikhism
• The two battles of Chamkaur Sahib were fought here between the Mughals and Guru Gobind Singh
• Two sons of Guru Gobind Singh — Baba Ajit Singh and Baba Jujhar Singh — died in the battle there

Not far away — at Daherpur village in Nurpur Bedi, separated by a distance of 45 km from Chamkaur Sahib — Congress candidate Vijay Inder Singla, a Hindu leader hailing from Aggarwal business community, finds instant connect with villagers as he says “Jo Bhole So Nihal Sat Sri Akal”. Traversing through villages in Nurpur Bedi that lie nestled on the edge of Shivalik Hills, the former MP from Sangrur, calls Congress the ‘asli rakha’ (real saviour) of farmers. He also ropes in his father Sant Ram Singla’s closeness to former President Giani Zail Singh to connect to the voters.

Challenged by AAP candidate, Malwinder Singh Kang, two-time president of Punjab University Students Council, and an old timer and former Anandpur Sahib MP and SAD candidate, Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra, Dr Sharma and Singla use every tool in their arsenal to wash their outsider tag and win the confidence of the Sikh voters in the area.

As the candidates make every effort to pull the voters out of their homes in the sweltering heat, the political frenzy among the voters seems to be missing, if one goes by their participation in rallies and little presence of posters and hoardings of the candidates in the rural hinterland.

Keeping cards close to his heart, 60 year-old farmer of Bardian Chalain village in Chamkaur Sahib, Kesar Singh, sums up saying that people are still to make up their mind. “We have supporters of Akalis and Congress here,” he quips.

In Nurpur Bedi, Pradeep Sharma, a chemist, is busy discussing the winning prospects of candidates in the constituency. He retorts, “This time, candidates of BJP and AAP have made the contest interesting”, as he seems to be in favour of the saffron party.

Stretching from heavily urbanised Mohali to historical shrines in Chamkaur Sahib and Anandpur Sahib, the constituency has modernity and history as the two ends of the spectrum in this south-eastern corner of Punjab.

One of the holiest places of Sikhs, Anandpur Sahib parliamentary segment is home to Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib, one of the five Takhts in Sikhism. The two battles of Chamkaur were fought here between the Mughals and Guru Gobind Singh. Two sons of Guru Gobind Singh — Baba Ajit Singh and Baba Jujhar Singh — died in battle at Chamkaur.

Otherwise littered with several crucial aspects of Sikh history, the constituency owing to its population profile has a non-Panthic character. It is for this reason that after being delineated from Ropar in 2008, the Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha seat has been a Congress citadel.

Considered a safe seat by the Congress, the grand old party has been fielding outsiders from the constituency and still managed to win the seat twice in the three elections held in 2009, 2014 and 2019. Ravneet Bittu was elected in 2009 and Manish Tewari in 2019. In 2014, senior Congress leader Ambika Soni lost to Prem Singh Chandumajra of the SAD.

In BSP’s stronghold pockets, the predominantly backward constituency has witnessed a direct contest between the Congress and SAD.

However, the political landscape changed with AAP slowly making inroads and winning seven of the nine seats in the 2022 Assembly elections. Of the remaining two, one went to the BSP and the remaining to the SAD.

With the SAD and BJP parting ways and AAP having a formidable electoral presence, the constituency is all set to witness a multi-cornered contest.