Hectic preparations for the battle of Gurdaspur are already on from all three warring sides - the ruling Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) combine, and the principal opposition party in Punjab Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The saffron brigade has already launched its poll campaign to retain every vote of Gurdaspur lok Sabha constituency while Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh is also leaving no ammunition unused for emerging victorious in the first political battle after coming to power in March.
Not staying behind, the AAP is also set to try its luck and increase it grip in the State. Another prominent leader of the region Sucha Singh Chhotepur, who finished on third spot in 2014 lok Sabha polls from the constituency as AAP candidate, is yet to take decision. Chhotepur is now heading a regional outfit, Apna Punjab Party, after parting ways with AAP ahead 2017 Punjab polls.
Interestingly, the Election Commission is yet to announce the date for the bypoll. The seat fell vacant on April 27 this year, after BJP’s sitting MP and yesteryear’s Bollywood superstar Vinod Khanna passed away prolonged illness.
Capt Amarinder made the most of the Independence Day by strategically selecting Gurdaspur as the venue for the state-level function, announcing a slew of sops including 67,000 MGNREGA cards in Gurdaspur, making air connectivity to Pathankot operational by September, Rs 20 crore state-of-the-art new bus stand, among other things.
And why not! Gurdaspur by-election will be the first litmus test of the Congress’ popularity, as the party would make every possible effort to win the seat and increasing its tally in the lok Sabha under the new state party chief Sunil Jakhar.
Captain’s sops
Capt Amarinder, in his I-Day speech, announced a series of projects to create health and education infrastructure for the development of border areas of Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts.
He announced that Rs 84 crore has been set aside for providing toilets and water connections to all rural households in the district, besides Rs 2.5 crore for infrastructure upgrade at police stations in Gurdaspur, Batala and Pathankot.
Stressing the importance of ensuring the progress of the sensitive border areas, he announced Rs 44 crore for health infrastructure upgrade and Rs 118 crore for school infrastructure upgrade in Gurdaspur. Another Rs 45 crore was allocated for disbursement under the old age pension scheme, and Rs seven crore for ‘Ashirwad’ scheme.
That is not all! He announced Rs 67 crore and Rs 42 crore for urban facelift of Pathankot and Batala, besides setting up of a PEPSICO bottling plant at Pathankot, where link roads would be repaired at a cost of Rs 55 crore.
A Navodya Vidyalaya at Fatehgarh Churian, a new revenue sub-division and a degree college at Kalanaur was also announced by the Chief Minister - in an apparent attempt to woo the populace.
SAD-BJP’s counter-offensive
Seeing things slanting towards the ruling party, the top brass of the SAD-BJP combine on Wednesday put their heads together to chalk out its strategy for the Gurdaspur by-poll.
For the BJP, which has already set the ball rolling to preserve its seat, the poll in-charges for nine assembly constituencies falling under the Gurdaspur parliamentary seat are out in the field holding meetings with the workers.
During the meeting of the SAD-BJP core, headed by former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, it was decided to contest the polls together and also selecting the combine’s candidate in consultations.
The meeting, also attended by the SAD president Sukhbir Badal, BJP’s state president Vijay Sampla, among other senior leaders, also directed its District Coordination Committees to aware the people about NDA-led Central Government’s achievements while highlighting the “failures” of Congress-led Punjab Government even after completing of their five-month government.
It has directed its leaders and workers in the district to go door-to-door, a senior Akali leader told The Pioneer after the meeting adding that the SAD would also appoint its poll in-charges for the nine assembly segments in the constituency along with that of the BJP.
Sukhbir Badal and Vijay Sampla would together visit these assembly segments next week.
Congress failure to fulfil its poll promises including complete farm loan waiver, jobs for state’s youth, eliminating drugs, among others would be the main focus of the combine’s election campaign.
AAP making its bid
Also throwing the hat in the political ring, AAP is also holding meeting with its volunteers to zero in on the candidate for by-election.
“We will consider the feedback from the district volunteers to select our candidate...we have asked them to look for their choices...the final decision will be taken after announcement of the date,” said a senior AAP leader.
AAP’s senior leadership including party’s sate unit president Bhagwant Mann, co-president Aman Arora and the leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Wednesday, held a meeting with AAP volunteers as a part of their preparations for the upcoming bypoll.