Abohar elects opposition party candidate fourth time in a row

Going by the previous experience, the winning streak of MLAs from the opposition party from Abohar since 2007 has resulted in a major loss for its inhabitants with basic facilities like potable drinking water or other civic amenities remaining a distant dream

Caption: Congress MLA Sandeep Jakhar during a ‘shramdan ’ in Abohar. HT photo

Congress MLA Sandeep Jakhar during a ‘shramdan ’ in Abohar.

Ferozepur: History seems to have a tendency to repeat itself in Abohar. For the fourth time in a row, a candidate, whose party could not gain power in the state, has been elected from the constituency to the Punjab assembly, which may put the development of the city on hold again.

Going by the previous experience, the winning streak of MLAs from the opposition party from Abohar since 2007 has resulted in a major loss for its inhabitants with basic facilities like potable drinking water or other civic amenities remaining a distant dream.

This time, Congress’ Sandeep Jakhar defeated Deep Kamboj of the Aam Aadmi Party with over 5,000 votes from Abohar. AAP registered a landslide victory in the February 20 assembly polls.

Sandeep’s uncle and former state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar won this assembly segment in 2007 and 2012 by defeating BJP’s Raj Kumar Goyal by 17,201 votes, but the Congress failed to gain power in the state during both terms.

In 2017, when the Congress, led by Captain Amarinder Singh, made a landslide victory in the state, its stalwart Jakhar was defeated by greenhorn Arun Narang of the BJP by 3,279 votes.

“Had (Sunil) Jakhar been elected in 2017, he could have been the influential minister in the government and various public works which commenced at the fag end of the last government, including setting up of a government college, sewerage and drinking water project, could have accomplished much earlier,” Vijay Sharma, 52, a native of the city, said.

In the 2020 Swachh Survekshan survey, Abohar, which attained municipal corporation status in 2018, was ranked as the third dirtiest city of India with a population between 1-10 lakh. It stood at 380 out of a total of 382 cities in this category. Even a few hours of shower often submerges buildings of municipal corporation, commissioner’s residence and tehsil complex in the city.

Sandeep has been making continuous efforts to re-shape Abohar at the ground level by participating in ‘shramdan’ (free labour) on 77 Saturdays continuously to help remove the tag of the third dirtiest city from Abohar.