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Punjab elections: SAD stronghold Dera Bassi awaiting development
An Akali bastion for three decades, Dera Bassi saw the Congress clinching clean victory in the civic body elections last year; but it has still not seen any big development project
With several issues pertaining to basic amenities still unresolved in the Dera Bassi area, the constituency is set to witness an interesting multi-cornered contest in the Assembly elections scheduled on February 14.
The semi-urban constituency falls in Mohali district and includes Dera Bassi, Lalru, and Zirakpur towns.
Residents complain that in the past few years, no big landmark project has come up in Dera Bassi, located on the Chandigarh-Delhi national highway.
While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has given the ticket to Kuljeet Singh Randhawa, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has once again declared sitting MLA NK Sharma as its candidate.
From the Congress, Deepinder Singh Dhillon, who finished second in the 2017 elections, and Amit Bawa Saini are the frontrunners. Mukesh Gandhi is also hoping for a ticket from Captain Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress.
The Dera Bassi assembly constituency has always remained a stronghold of the SAD under former minister late Captain Kanwaljit Singh and the party has triumphed for the past three decades.
NK Sharma won the elections in 2012 and 2017. But in the civic body elections held in February last year, the Congress routed out the SAD from all three civic bodies in the constituency – Dera Bassi, Lalru and Zirakpur.
In Dera Bassi and Lalru, the Congress had tasted victory after a decade, while in Zirakpur, it won after two decades.
Joint action committee (JAC) president Sukhdev Chaudhary said in the past decade, no new landmark project had come up in the constituency. “It still lacks a proper bus stand and insanitation prevails, while political parties took care of only their interests,” he said.
MLA NK Sharma said during the SAD rule in the state from 2012 to 2017, several development works were carried out in Dera Bassi, but it remained ignored after the Congress came to power in 2017. He claimed that the SAD will set up a bus stand in Dera Bassi after forming the government in the state after the upcoming elections.
