With a sizeable portion of the electorate busy with paddy harvesting and purchasing operations, candidates from the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) in high-stake Gidderbaha bypoll are relying on aggressive social media outreach and traditional “nukkad” meetings, instead of public gatherings/rallies to connect with voters.
The Gidderbaha seat in Muktsar district is seen as the most prestigious assembly segment apart from Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal (SC), and Barnala. Bypolls in Punjab are scheduled for November 13.
President of the Punjab unit of the Congress Amarinder Singh Raja Warring retained the Gidderbaha seat for the last three consecutive terms after breaching the bastion of Akalis. Byelection for the seat was necessitated after he was elected from the Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat.
An Akali turncoat and AAP nominee Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon has been in campaign mode for over two months after he defected to AAP on August 28. Amid a resentment expressed publicly by the AAP leadership of the constituency against his candidature, Dhillon is banking heavily upon his proximity to the chief minister Bhagwant Mann to woo the voters. At election meetings, Dhillon is heard appealing votes stating that the CM has assured multi-dimensional developments of the constituency. He is posting videos, stories and reels on Facebook featuring his meetings with the community leaders and masses.
Former finance minister and senior BJP leader Manpreet Singh Badal Manpreet registered his maiden victory as a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate in the 1995 byelection and retained the seat again in 1997, 2002 and 2007. In 2017, he contested as a Congress candidate from the Bathinda Urban seat but lost. The five-time MLA Manpreet then switched to the BJP and is contesting the byelection on his old political turf after a gap of 17 years. His team regularly posts his interviews along with reels and photos on his Facebook page. Manpreet is meeting voters and telling them that he would work as a bridge to benefit the area with development funds from the Centre while claiming that the fund-starved AAP government has been ignoring the area. Besides lauding development schemes rolled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for farmers, Manpreet is also highlighting his connecting with his “taya” and the late Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal under whose chief ministership, he as a finance minister introduced a novel project of installing RO (reverse osmosis)-based safe drinking supply in over 50 villages of the constituency and provided nearly 1,800 new tubewell connections to boost cotton cultivation in the semi-arid area of Gidderbaha.
{{/usCountry}}Former finance minister and senior BJP leader Manpreet Singh Badal Manpreet registered his maiden victory as a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate in the 1995 byelection and retained the seat again in 1997, 2002 and 2007. In 2017, he contested as a Congress candidate from the Bathinda Urban seat but lost. The five-time MLA Manpreet then switched to the BJP and is contesting the byelection on his old political turf after a gap of 17 years. His team regularly posts his interviews along with reels and photos on his Facebook page. Manpreet is meeting voters and telling them that he would work as a bridge to benefit the area with development funds from the Centre while claiming that the fund-starved AAP government has been ignoring the area. Besides lauding development schemes rolled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for farmers, Manpreet is also highlighting his connecting with his “taya” and the late Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal under whose chief ministership, he as a finance minister introduced a novel project of installing RO (reverse osmosis)-based safe drinking supply in over 50 villages of the constituency and provided nearly 1,800 new tubewell connections to boost cotton cultivation in the semi-arid area of Gidderbaha.
{{/usCountry}}Amrita Warring, the electoral greenhorn and the Congress nominee, is banking heavily upon her husband Amarinder Singh Raja Warring to woo voters. Her videos and photos with the women in the area are getting traction on digital platforms where she is also posting her interviews.