Dera Baba Nanak seat no cakewalk for Daljit Singh Kalsi as Panthic vote bank dips

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, July 14

The erosion of the Panthic vote bank in the Dera Baba Nanak Assembly constituency is sure to boomerang on the electoral ambitions of Daljit Singh Kalsi, a film actor and financer of pro-Khalistani sympathiser and Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh. At present, Kalsi is incarcerated in the Dibrugarh jail with Amritpal.

Narinder Kaur, Kalsi’s wife, has already gone on record saying her husband will contest the bypoll necessitated by the resignation of MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. A video of Kaur has also gone viral in this regard.

Sources reveal the area no longer retains its Panthic philosophy for which it was once famous for. The family of Satwant Singh, an assassin of ex-PM Indira Gandhi, decided to field his nephew Sukhwinder Pal Singh Agwan, but the decision was later revoked.

Kalsi and his advisers ostensibly selected this seat for its alleged Panthic nature. Congressman Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has notched up three successive victories since 2012 and his wins clearly prove the area is no longer a hotbed of Sikh fundamentalist politics.

“Facts prove that Kalsi has got his arithmetic totally wrong. Despite the SAD projecting itself as the guardian of the Sikh Panth, its candidate Daljeet Singh Cheema managed a measly 17,000 votes. The circumstances under which Amritpal and Sarabjit Singh Khalsa won the Lok Sabha elections were totally different from what they are going to be now. In the bypoll, bureaucrats and police officers mould things as per the convenience of the state leadership unlike the ECI, which conducts the General Election,” said a prominent SAD leader.

Kalsi’s decision to contest bypoll has become a hot topic of discussion among the voters. Meanwhile, the Congress is sure to field Jatinder Kaur, wife of Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who has already started holding workers’ meetings in the constituency.

For AAP, halqa in-charge Gurdeep Singh Randhawa is the likely bet. On the other hand, the SAD and BJP are finding it difficult to shortlist their candidates. The discernible lack of interest on their part is much in evidence, particularly after the drubbing they received on this seat in the recent elections. While the SAD secured just 17,000 votes, the BJP ended up with barely 5,000 votes.

Cheema got just 17,000 votes

Despite the SAD projecting itself as the guardian of the Panth, its candidate Daljit Cheema polled a measly 17,000 votes in the LS poll. SAD leader