The vacuum of leadership created at Nabha, after local MLA Sadhu Singh Dharamsot’s candidature from Fatehgarh Sahib, has forced the Patiala royal family to seek help from their bête-noire in the party, Amloh MLA Kaka Randeep Singh, who has good base in Nabha.
Two times MLA from Nabha, Randeep is all set to take the responsibility of election campaign of Preneet Kaur, contestant from the Patiala parliamentary constituency. Captain Amarinder and Preneet have personally approached Randeep to take charge of canvassing for the elections.
Randeep was shifted to Amloh after Nabha was notified as reserved seat after the delimitation before 2012 state assembly elections, while incumbent MLA Sadhu Singh Dharmsot was brought from Amloh at that time.
As per available information, AICC general secretary and in-charge of party affairs of Punjab Shakeel Ahmed had called Randeep in New Delhi on March 26 and arranged his meeting with Preneet to bury differences and to make a fresh start for the elections.
In 2009, Preneet got a convincing lead of 10,751 votes from Nabha with contribution of 58106 votes to her total secured 4.74 lakh votes. Her then counterpart Prem Singh Chandumajra secured only 41055 votes from the constituency.
Randeep’s father and former PWD minister Gurdarshan Singh, had remained an MLA from Nabha three times.
{{/usCountry}}Randeep’s father and former PWD minister Gurdarshan Singh, had remained an MLA from Nabha three times.
{{/usCountry}}For Preneet, Randeep is the best bet as he has a good stronghold at Nabha after he proved his mettle by defeating Akali stalwart Raja Narinder Singh for two consecutive times in 2002 and 2007 elections.
Though former MLA Ramesh Singla was also one of the options but he was more interested in campaigning for the party in the Amargarh constituency which falls in the Fathegarh Sahiib constituency.
When contacted, Randeep confirmed that the talks were on but he was yet to receive any directions from the high command.
“I will definitely campaign where the high command directs. With my roots in Nabha, we contributed in making it a Congress- dominated seat and it would be my pleasure to campaign for the party candidate from Nabha,” he said.
Dharmsot campaign won’t be affected by the move as he had represented Amloh, which falls in the Fatehgarh constituency.