Bhagats, Ravidassias, Sialkotis enliven Jalandhar bypoll contest

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, July 6

While there are several factors that will determine the outcome of the Jalandhar West bypoll, the major determiner is most likely to be the community background of the candidates.

Candidates banking on respective communities

• AAP candidate Mohinder Bhagat is from the Bhagat community, which has a strength of about 25,000-30,000 voters in the Jalandhar West Assembly segment
• Congress candidate Surinder Kaur is from the Ravidassia community, which has about 30,000 to 35,000 voters
• BJP’s Sheetal Angural has built his campaign around being a Sialkoti Ravidassia, the community that brought sports goods manufacturing trade to Jalandhar
• SAD rebel group’s candidate Surjit Kaur is from the Sirkiband Rajput community and is expecting good support from it

Even as the three main parties — the Congress, the BJP and AAP — are set to give their best to woo voters in the last two days of campaigning, their leaders feel that community consolidation for each candidate is increasing with each passing day.

AAP candidate Mohinder Bhagat is from the Bhagat community, which has a strength of about 25,000-30,000 voters and is mostly concentrated in the Bhargo Camp locality. It is being estimated that 70 to 80 per cent members of this community, who are Kabir followers, could go with AAP, especially after a promise of ministerial berth for the candidate by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann upon his victory. The AAP candidate’s 92-year-old father, Bhagat Chunni Lal, who is a three-time BJP MLA from here and used to get over 50 per cent vote share, has appealed to the voters to support his son. Prior to the bypoll, Mohinder Bhagat has tried his luck twice on the BJP ticket in 2017 and 2022 but wasn’t lucky. He emerged third in 2022 by polling 29 per cent votes and second in 2017 by getting 33.49 per cent votes.

Congress candidate Surinder Kaur is from the local Ravidassia community. Her late husband Ram Asra Chaudhary was engaged in tanning work, dealing in raw hides.

She has a good hold in several pockets, including Buta Mandi and Jallowal Abadi, where most people have the same background and are likely to support her. Her community has about 30,000 to 35,000 voters in Jalandhar West. Surinder Kaur, a four-time councillor and Senior Deputy Mayor, is trying her luck for the first time in the Assembly bypoll.

BJP candidate Sheetal Angural has built his campaign around being a Sialkoti Ravidassia, the community that was engaged in sports goods manufacturing work in Pakistan and brought the trade to Jalandhar. The community did not work on raw hide like the native Ravidassias and worked on making sports products from finished leather. According to estimates, as many as 50 per cent of the total 1.7 lakh voters in Jalandhar West have their origin in Sialkot. However, these include Ravidassias, Bhagats and even general castes such as Mahajans, Kharbandas, Kohlis and Mayors, who are big sports goods exporters here. Angural is expecting support from pockets like Basti Danishmandan and Basti Nau.

SAD rebel group’s candidate Surjit Kaur is from the Sirkiband Rajput community and like other candidates, she too is expecting good support from this community, mostly settled in the Basti Mithu area.