In Gidderbaha segment, leaders try to strike emotional chord with voters

A five-cornered contest between the Aam Aadmi Party, Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, SAD and fundamentalists (panthic group) is on the cards for the Gidderbaha Assembly bypoll scheduled on November 13.

The Congress has put up a united face under the leadership of Pradesh Congress Committee chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring. His wife Amrita and former Zila Parishad chairman Narinder Singh Kaoni are among the ticket aspirants.

The SAD is seeking votes in the name of former CM Parkash Singh Badal by terming him “Bapu Badal”. The party has put up posters with a large photo of senior Badal and a slogan, “Bapu Badal de kamm da mull pawange, 1995 wang takkadi nu jittawange”.

After SAD constituency incharge Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon switched to AAP, the senior leadership has been trying hard to regain the lost ground.

AAP leaders have installed a number of hoardings of the works done by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, including the upcoming Malwa Canal. However, the party has to deal with infighting in its local unit. Of late, the CM has visited the segment twice and Cabinet Minister Aman Arora too has made numerous rounds of the area.

The BJP’s likely candidate, former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Chandigarh on Thursday, has finally started sharing his activities on social media. Today, he posted some photos of his public meeting in Gidderbaha. A few days ago, he had posted an old video with senior Badal, terming Gidderbaha his “karam bhoomi”. This video is of Manpreet’s tenure in the SAD, when reverse osmosis water treatment plants were installed in the segment.

The panthic leaders, including Faridkot MP Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa and their likely candidate Mandeep Singh Sidhu, younger brother of “Waris Punjab De” founder Sandeep Singh, alias Deep Sidhu, have not been seen on the ground for the past few days. They did not even participate in the recently held panchayat poll.

Further, Sukhraj Singh Niamiwala, son of Krishan Bhagwan Singh who was one of the victims in the Behbal Kalan firing incident in 2015, is yet to start his political activities. Both Mandeep and Sukhraj have already claimed that they were not against each other and the name of the candidate would be announced soon. In June, son of NSA detainee Bhagwant Singh, alias Pradhan Mantri Bajeke, had also made an announcement that his father would contest the Gidderbaha bypoll.

SAD (Sudhar Lehar) leader Charanjit Brar too has once toured the segment. Former MP Jagmeet Singh Brar, who was expelled from the SAD in 2022, said Gidderbaha was his “‘janam bhoomi” and “karam bhoomi”. He would soon take a call on contesting the byelection. The Gidderbaha bypoll has been necessitated after three-time MLA Warring got elected as an MP from Ludhiana.