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Sangrur LS bypoll: Badals missing from SAD nominee’s posters
This is in a stark contrast with the party’s practice in the past elections when the campaign material of its candidates was dominated by faces of Badals
Photographs of not a single member of the Badal family have been featured on banners, hoardings, posters and other campaign material being used to seek votes for Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Kamaldeep Kaur ahead of the Sangrur Lok Sabha byelection.
This is in a stark contrast with the party’s practice in the past elections, whether assembly or parliamentary, when the campaign material of its candidates was dominated by faces of SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, president Sukhbir Singh Badal, former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and senior leader Bikram Singh Majithia.
This time, only the photographs of party nominee Kamaldeep Kaur and her foster brother Balwant Singh Rajoana, who is on a death row after being convicted for former chief minister Beant Singh’s assassination, find a place on campaign posters and banners along with the symbols of SAD and its ally Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Besides, slogans on the demand for immediate release of Sikh prisoners languishing in Indian jails have been written on them.
Subhash Sharma, general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Punjab unit, said, “The SAD leaders have hit the nadir in their political careers and are avoiding their pictures on posters. They know they will lose votes by using them.”
Tejwant Mann, a Sangrur-based Punjabi writer and critic, said: “The people of Punjab are disgruntled with Badals, who are aware of this reality. This is the only reason why they are not using their pictures on banners.”
The SAD has faced two successive humiliating defeats in the Punjab assembly polls under the leadership of Badals. The party could win just three seats in the recent elections, down from 15 in 2017. It has also led to questions being raised on the Badals’ leadership within the party.
However, Sukhbir Badal maintained that it has been decided to only highlight the key demand about ‘Bandi Singhs’ (Sikh prisoners) in the posters. “Kamaldeep Kaur is a joint candidate of the SAD-BSP alliance and all Panthic organisations. It was decided that only the issue of freeing Sikh prisoners should be highlighted in the posters,” he said on the sidelines of a campaign meeting at Khadial village in Sangrur.
