Bypoll: Actor Daljit Kalsi not to contest from Dera Baba Nanak seat

In a volte-face, Punjabi actor Daljit Singh Kalsi — incarcerated at a Dibrugarh jail with 'Waris-Punjab-De' chief Amritpal Singh — has decided not to contest the Dera Baba Nanak bypoll.

Much water has flowed down the Ravi since his announcement in July that he was in the reckoning. Things have changed on the political front, forcing him to retract from his earlier stand.

Kalsi was hoping to ride on the euphoria generated by Amritpal's landslide victory from the Khadoor Sahib seat, which he won by a margin of 1.97 lakh votes.

In July, his wife, Neeru, announced that her husband would be contesting. Sources said Kalsi was eyeing the seat because it held a "formidable fundamentalist vote share”, which was a misconception.

Observers said Kalsi withdrew due to two reasons.

First, 'Waris-Punjab-De' had been vertically split after the police recently nominated Amritpal Singh in a murder case. Many in the organisation were now distancing themselves from its activities. This, the sources said, had weakened the party structure.

Second, the erosion of the Panthic vote bank in the Dera Baba Nanak Assembly constituency was sure to boomerang on Kalsi's electoral ambitions. The area no longer retained its Panthic philosophy, for which it was well-known in the 1960s through the 1990s.

The family of Satwant Singh, an assassin of former PM Indira Gandhi, was thinking of fielding his nephew Sukhwinder Pal Singh Agwan, but dropped the idea. The observers said this was primarily done keeping in mind that a moderate like Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa had won thrice from the seat since 2012. His victories proved that the area was not a hotbed of Sikh fundamental politics anymore.

Kalsi was banking on capturing this particular vote share. However, calculations made by followers of ‘Waris-Punjab-De’ revealed that if he contested “he will end fourth, if not fifth in the pecking order”.

The circumstances under which Amritpal and Sarabjit Singh Khalsa won the parliamentary poll were different. In the bypoll, bureaucrats and police officers often mould things as per the convenience of the ruling party, giving a distinct advantage to party candidates.