Out of fight, yet SAD holds the key in Dera Baba Nanak

The paradox is too glaring to be brushed aside. Without even contesting, the SAD holds all the aces and is all set to play a crucial and conclusive role in the upcoming Dera Baba Nanak bypoll.

On a conservative estimate, the Akalis hold sway over nearly 50,000 votes.

This chunk of Akali vote share is turning out to be the X factor and may prove to be decisive in the final reckoning.

An edge-of-the-seat contest is developing between the Congress and AAP with the disinterested-looking BJP clearly watching the battle unfold from the sidelines. The saffron party has its reasons for being casual in its approach. In the 2022 Assembly polls, its candidate could manage just 1.33% of the total votes polled. Likewise, in the parliamentary elections earlier this year, Dinesh Babbu of the BJP could notch up just 6,000 votes from this Assembly seat.

The development pits Jatinder Kaur of the Congress and Gurdeep Singh Randhawa of AAP in a straight fight. After balancing the pros and cons, both the parties seem to be on an even keel.

Indubitably, ex-Cabinet minister Sucha Singh Langah, whose political animosity with MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa runs deep, is the man of the moment. He commands influence over a large number of loyal Akali voters.

“Sukhjinder Randhawa is the bigger evil while Gurdeep Randhawa is the lesser evil. I have asked my supporters to vote for the lesser evil,” he said.

Going by Langah’s assertions, this means a sizable number of Akali votes will fall in the lap of AAP. However, the moderate Akali voters, the ones who do not want gangsters to rule the roost in Dera Baba Nanak, will exercise their franchise in favour of Jatinder Kaur. This makes the battle all the more interesting. The Congress has openly claimed that AAP’s Gurdeep Randhawa is using gangsters to further his interests.

With the SAD vote bank having the power to tilt the balance either way, senior AAP leaders are approaching Langah. On his part, he is playing hide and seek with these politicians consequently keeping the AAP leadership on tenterhooks.

“For the SAD, the Congress has been anathema. Its dislike for the party goes back several decades when there was a two-party system in Punjab. The Akalis were in an alliance with the BJP for several years but that is a story of the past. The delayed paddy procurement has been blamed on the BJP-controlled FCI, a central government agency. This means our party cadre will never hand over its votes to the BJP. This leaves us staring at the AAP. If their leaders ask us to vote for them, we will,” said a senior Akali leader.