The ‘Battle of lambi’ is all set to go down in the annals of Punjab’s political history as one of the most important electoral battle of the state. After years of cold war, two generals of rival armies, Capt Amarinder Singh and Parkash Singh Badal, are all charged up to slug it out in the battlefield of lambi during the Assembly elections.
Adding a third dimension to the fierce war for political supremacy in not just the constituency, but the State is Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Jarnail Singh, the shoe thrower, now donning political battledress.
The die has been cast in lambi. As the Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder on Wednesday filed his nomination papers from Chief Minister Badal’s bastion, lambi, which is now all set to witness a baap of all ballot-battles this year.
Assailing each other since all these years, the two veterans of Punjab politics would literally confront each other for the very first time. Earlier, they were holding their respective fortress, and defending the same while attacking each other indirectly, but this time, the bout would be direct and expected to be more fierce.
As the two stalwarts are fighting for their political honour in what they call their “last elections”, AAP’s Jarnail Singh, who will be testing state’s political waters for the first time, is hoping to make a mark, at least to some extent.
On one hand is the five-time chief minister and sitting legislator Badal, and on the other is his arch rival and the former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder. Throwing his hat in the ring is a journalist-turned-politician Jarnail Singh.
Post February 4 elections, only one of the three parties will find its heavyweight in the assembly after the government is formed.
Political pundits, who are keeping a close watch on lambi, believed that the triangular contest is expected to be closely contested. They indicated at the Badal’s robust track record in lambi who would be seeking re-election for the fourth time in a row.
Badal contested from lambi for the first time in 1997, has been a consecutive winner till date, in 2002, 2007, and 2012. In fact, Badal has been elected in Vidhan Sabha for a total of 10 times, in 1957 and in each election since 1969, except for 1992 election, wherein he led a boycott of state elections by the Akalis.
Capt Amarinder, on the other hand, has served as chief minister of Punjab only once, and entered the Vidhan Sabha for five terms representing Patiala (urban) thrice, Samana and Talwandi Sabo once each.
His first electoral success was in 1980 when he was elected to the lok Sabha, but quit post Operation Bluestar in 1984 in protest and joined Akali Dal.
As Akali leader, he was elected to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha from Talwandi Sabo. After forming SAD’s breakaway faction in 1992, he was defeated from his own constituency where he got only 856 votes. This led to his party’s merger with the Congress in 1998.
Capt Amarinder was again defeated by SAD’s Prem Singh Chandumajra from his Patiala constituency in 1998 by a whooping margin of 33,251 votes. It was in 2002, when he led the party to victory and served as Chief Minister till 2007. Since then, he was winning Patiala seat in 2007 and also in 2012. He made a major mark by defeating senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley by a margin of more than 1,02,000 votes in 2014 general elections from Amritsar.
It was only once when Capt Amarinder contested from two seats — Samana and Kharar. While Capt Amarinder lost his deposit in Kharar, he won Samana seat as the other candidates withdrew their nominations.
And there is Jarnail Singh — AAP’s sikh face, but a greenhorn in Punjab politics, of which both Capt Amarinder and Badal are ‘past masters’.
A former scribe with a Hindi daily, Jarnail’s claim to fame was his act of throwing a shoe towards the then Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram during a press conference at Delhi in 2009. He had maintained that he was “angered over clean chit to Sajjan Singh and Jagdish Tytler for their alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots”.
Comparatively younger than the 89-year-old Badal and 74-year-old Capt Amarinder, 43-year-old Jarnail is aggressive in is attacks on both. For the next two weeks, not only all road leads to lambi, but all eyes are also glued to witness the baap of all battles.