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Punjab polls: Two big guns and the mother of all battles
SAD leader Bikram Majithia has raised the stakes by taking up Punjab Congress president Navjot Sidhu’s challenge to leave his stronghold Majitha and contest on latter’s home turf alone
With only two days to go for the Punjab Vidhan Sabha elections, state Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu and senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia made last-ditch effort to win over the electorate in the high-stakes battle being witnessed for the Amritsar East assembly segment.
Playing a master stroke against the cricketer-turned-politician, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal on January 26 fielded his brother-in-law and former cabinet minister Bikram Singh Majithia against him, even as the Akali leader was facing arrest in a high-profile drug smuggling case. Raising the stakes further, Majithia accepted his bête noire and sitting MLA Sidhu’s challenge to leave his stronghold Majitha and contest from Amritsar East alone.
Since then, Majithia and his aides have been working day and night to breach the Punjab Congress chief’s bastion, which he and his wife Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu have held since its creation during the 2012 delimitation. Running a well-managed campaign, Majithia has inducted many local Congress leaders into his party. Giving a tough fight to his once close friend, the SAD leader has kept Sidhu on his toes, who has avoided leaving the segment to campaign for other party candidates and even had Congress national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi lead a road show in his favour.
What goes in their favour, what doesn’t
However, the former three-time Amritsar MP has the advantage of being associated with this segment for the past one decade, while Majithia is new. The other big challenge for the Akali leader is the general perception among voters, especially in areas like Mohkampura and Maqboolpura that are worst-hit by drug menace, after he faced charges of drug smuggling and was booked in a high-profile case. Also, some of the local leaders inducted by him into the SAD do not carry a “good image”.
The biggest negative for Sidhu is his prolonged absence from the constituency and his general “non-availability”. After his portfolio — local government — was changed by the then chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Sidhu went incommunicado for a long time. Even as he has been repeatedly apologising to the voters during his campaign meetings, it might prove to be too little, too late.
Also, though Sidhu is listing big projects such as a railway overbridge in Verka locality as his achievements, many residents complain that they are not even getting basic amenities such as proper roads and sewerage system. Majithia and other candidates are bringing up these issues to puncture into Sidhu’s claims.
The sitting MLA is also finding it difficult to get the support of many senior Congress leaders in Amritsar. Yet, he carries a clean image that is attracting a big section of voters, especially upper and middle-class Hindus and Sikhs in urban pockets.
AAP nominee could be the deciding factor
According to some poll pundits, anti-incumbency factor might not dent Sidhu’s chances of retaining the seat as the votes of disgruntled electorate will end up getting divided among the SAD, AAP and BJP in a four-cornered contest.
Though Jeewanjot Kaur, fielded by the AAP, is a low-profile candidate who is lagging behind the two big guns, she is likely to get a sizeable vote share, thanks to the response her party is getting across the state.
In 2017, Sidhu defeated the nearest rival by a huge margin of 42,809 votes. With most poll observers and local leaders expecting a wafer-thin winning margin this time, the AAP candidate’s vote share could end up being the deciding factor for the two main contenders.
