Jalandhar West bypoll: Akali Dal nominee Surjit Kaur gets Rajputs’ support after party decides to back BSP pick

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, June 27

A day after Shiromani Akali Dal withdrew support to its candidate Surjit Kaur in Jalandhar West (reserved) bypoll and decided to support the BSP candidate, the 15,000-strong Sirkiband Rajput community, which she belongs to, has announced to support her.

The community leaders have said it was for the first time that their community had got a chance to contest elections and they would not let it go. They said even as the main SAD leadership had backed out despite the symbol ‘scale’ still being intact with her, the community shall rally behind the candidate with full might.

Elaborating, Vicky S Khalsa, an activist, said: “We have our origin from Pakistan but we have the highest population in Jalandhar West area. The Basti Mithu locality from where candidate Surjit Kaur hails has more than 9,000 voters from the community and in total there are 15,000 voters in Jalandhar West Assembly seat. We have begun consolidating our community vote bank to rally behind her.”

Another community leader Paramjit Singh, who is also the chief sewadar of gurdwara at Mithu Basti, said: “Leaders of our community from Goindwal, Rajpura and Bathinda, where too we have a sizable strength, have reached Jalandhar West to support Surjit Kaur in her campaign and send across the message identifying each and every member of the community. Surjit Kaur’s deceased husband and former councillor Pritam Singh was our most prominent leader. It was the Sirkiband Rajput community behind him which supported him so strongly each time he or his wife contested the MC polls. Now that he is no more, we cannot leave his wife in lurch.” Surjit Kaur too has been two-time councillor.

He shed some light on the background of the community. “Our ancestors were engaged in making straw mats along the banks of the Beas and Sutlej. We also have done this job for a while. But we are all now engaged in other works,” he said.

The community leaders said: “We may or may not win but it is time that we show our strength. We shall definitely do far better than SAD’s performance in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.” SAD candidate MS Kaypee had just got 2,623 votes then.

SAD leader Sukhminder S Rajpal, who is siding with Surjit Kaur, said: “It is even more unfair for the SAD to support the BSP candidate instead of our own. The BSP had trailed on the fifth position polling only 1,958 votes in the LS polls in this segment. SAD candidate Surjit Kaur had got authority letter from president Sukhbir Badal. Even the banners, posters that we got readied have pictures of Sukhbir Badal in the backdrop. What do we do with them now?”

Meanwhile, the candidate on Thursday handed over a complaint to the Returning Officer of the Jalandhar West Assembly seat alleging that her party’s district chief had tried to withdraw her papers using her forged signatures.

All political bigwigs in Jalandhar

• With less than two weeks to go for Jalandhar West bypoll, bigwigs of all political parties were in Jalandhar on Thursday to campaign for their respective candidates
• CM Bhagwant Mann, whose family has settled in their new rented house here, took some meetings and got joined some councilors
• CLP leader Partap Bajwa, BJP state chief Sunil Jakhar, AAP minister Aman Arora and Jalandhar MP Charanjit Channi, who too were here, held media interactions through the day

Mann takes jibe at SAD over supporting BSP

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann reacted to SAD announcing support for the BSP putting out a tweet; “Look at the plight of SAD. While their own symbol ‘scale’ is with another candidate, Sukhbir has announced support for the BSP. Does this party consider voters to be sheep and goats? Will Sukhbir campaign for the BSP in Jalandhar? Not at all. God is all powerful.”