Alarmed with the Congress party’s strategy to field its top guns in the lok Sabha electoral field in Punjab, the senior leadership of the ruling combine — Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — on Sunday put its head together to devise the election strategy for the future.
Besides the senior party leaders from Punjab, including SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, BJP State unit president Kamal Sharma, senior BJP leader Balram Ji Dass Tandon, among others, all the 13 candidates of both the parties, including Arun Jaitley, also attended the meeting.
During the hour-long meeting held at the SAD Chandigarh headquarters, which was continued till the filing of this report, the leaders discussed the ways and means to fortify its defences, while at the same time attacking the Congress by adopting a proactive approach.
The alliance has decided to send across a message to the entire party cadre to begin aggressive campaigning at all the stratas — right from the district level and down to the booth level. It was held in the meeting that an anti-Congress wave is blowing across the nation, and the Congress party cadre was demoralised having little faith on the party’s fate in the ensuing lok Sabha polls. Taking advantage of the same, the workers should try to woo as many Congress workers as they can.
Apparently, the SAD-BJP alliance has come on the backfoot after the Congress decided to make its senior leaders entering the poll fray, notwithstanding their reluctance, forcing it to streamline its poll strategy.
Earlier, the ruling alliance was considering the electoral battle as a cake walk at many of the constituencies — like Amritsar, Bathinda, ludhiana, among others, but the Congress forced them to put in their all-out effort to ensure victory of its candidates.
While the entire Badal family is concentrating on Bathinda constituency from where Badal bahu Harsimrat Badal is seeking re-election, the SAD-BJP cadre is leaving no stone unturned in Amritsar constituency.
Congress has fielded former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh against SAD-BJP combine candidate Arun Jaitley in Amritsar in a prestigious ballot battle, the State Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa is contesting from the adjoining constituency of Gurdaspur against Bollywood star and three-time MP Vinod Khanna. Sitting MP from Gurdaspur, Bajwa defeated Khanna in 2009.
In another strategic move, the party has tied up with Badal’s estranged nephew Manpreet Badal and fielded him in Bathinda as Congress-People’s Party of Punjab combine’s candidate giving sleepless nights to the ruing combine.
This is not all! Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Ambika Soni is also battling it out in the election field from Sri Anandpur Sahib constituency. The fact that a senior leaders like Soni is contesting from Punjab is enough to indicate the level of seriousness the Congress party is taking for the State.
If that is not enough, the party has also decided to field sitting Congress legislature party chief Sunil Jakhar from Ferozepur. Besides, the former Punjab Congress president and sitting Jalandhar MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee will be contesting from Hoshiarpur.
It is believed that the Congress move to field such a “senior panel’’ is to carry home the message to the SAD-BJP that party’s popularity is not finished in the state. In a commendable performance, the Congress had bagged eight out of 13 lok Sabha seats in Punjab during 2009 lok Sabha elections.
