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Punjab polls: MP Partap Singh Bajwa hints at contesting from Qadian
Partap Singh Bajwa on Sunday shared a Facebook post about returning to Qadian and Punjab politics, days after his younger brother and sitting MLA Fateh Jung held a poll rally
Rajya Sabha member Partap Singh Bajwa on Sunday hinted at contesting the upcoming Punjab assembly elections from Qadian segment in Gurdaspur district, three days after the Punjab Congress president projected the senior party leader’s younger brother and sitting MLA Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa as the nominee from this seat.
The senior Bajwa on Sunday shared a post written in Punjabi on Facebook, in which he can be seen sitting in his SUV. The post reads: “Apni karam bhumi Qadian lai rawana hunde hoe. Punjab di rajneeti vich vapsi, jithe mera dil vasda hai (Leaving for my land of action Qadian. Returning to politics in Punjab, where my heart lives).”
The post is being interpreted as a setback to Fateh Jung who on Thursday organised a rally as a show of strength and to kick start his poll campaign at Qadian. Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was the chief guest, had backed him at the rally, stating: “Fateh will win from his constituency with a huge margin”.
However, Partap Singh Bajwa, who once represented Kahnuwan assembly segment that was largely subsumed by Qadian during delimitation in 2007, stayed away from the rally. Seeing him absent, Sidhu had also said in his address: “I am waiting for Partap Bajwa”
Even in a Facebook post on Saturday, Bajwa had shared a letter addressed to him by Punjab PWD minister Vijay Inder Singla, in which the minister mentioned Qadian as “your assembly segment” while apprising him of progress in a road project there.
These two Facebook posts and his absence from his younger brother’s rally have raised questions whether the former Punjab Congress chief is set to stake claim to the party ticket from Qadian, from where his wife Charanjit Kaur Bajwa turned victorious in 2012. According to sources close to the Bajwa family, if the MP is willing to contest the polls, Fateh Jung will himself step back.
Earlier, Bajwa had started his political activities in Batala and announced to contest the polls from there, but got a jolt after then chief minister Amarinder Singh, who he had backed in the feud with Sidhu, resigned.
With a change of guard, his two loyalists were removed as chairmen of the Batala Improvement Trust and market committee, days after he got them appointed to these posts. He ended his political activities in Batala with immediate effect. Attempts made to contact Bajwa for a comment over phone proved futile.
