For almost five years now, it has been a fight between rival political parties on one side and Bikram Singh Majithia on the other over the issue of drug menace in the state.
For the first time now, the foes will fight it out on the electoral battlefield of Majitha to see the impact of a long drawn campaign against him.
Commonly known as ‘Majhe Da Jarnail’ in Punjab¸ the state Revenue Minister Majithia is facing a tough challenge in his own citadel, Majitha, which he is winning ever since he entered the electoral arena in 2007. In fact, his name has become synonymous to Majitha.
Eyeing a hat-trick this election, Majithia is locked in a three-cornered closely-contested fight not only with the Congress stalwart Sukhjinder Raj Singh lalli Majithia and Aam Aadmi Party’s Himmat Singh Shergill, but also with the drug taint against him.
The drug issue was raised by Congress’ national vice-president Rahul Gandhi ahead of 2012 assembly polls, and it gained steam when a multi-crore drug racket was unearthed in 2013. The issue took political turn the next year when a Punjab’s former cop and accused in drug case Jagdish Bhola named Majithia as kingpin.
During 2014 parliamentary polls, Congress candidate from Amritsar Capt Amarinder Singh had focused his campaign against Majithia, as Majitha was part of Amritsar lok Sabha seat. Even as Majithia faced protests at many places in Amritsar and was also blamed for BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley’s defeat in Amritsar, the combine fared well in his bastion.
In Majitha, Jaitley outwitted Capt Amarinder by a margin of 20,651. Out of the total 1,12,828 valid votes, Jaitley bagged 60,201, while Capt Amarinder got 39,550 votes. AAP’s Dr Daljit Singh, who finished third in Amritsar segment, has secured 5,742 votes in Majitha. He has now joined the Congress.
Attempting to foray into Punjab political sphere, AAP has virtually launched a tirade against the SAD leader for his alleged involvement in drug mafia. Right from AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal to Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, and others, AAP unitedly targeted Majithia, the brother-in-law of Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal.
Majithia has even filed a defamation suit against Kejriwal and other party leaders for disparaging his image by naming him in the drug case.
The significance Majitha holds for both the rival parties can be gauged from the fact that Rahul Gandhi kick-started his Punjab poll campaign by addressing his first rally here. So did the Delhi Chief Minister and AAP’s campaign committee head and star campaigner Bhagwant Mann.
To take on Majithia, Kejriwal declared the name of Shergill, party’s legal Cell head, during a rally, even as he was already declared candidate from Mohali — a part of Anandpur Sahib assembly segment from where he contested in 2014 general elections.
In his first election hustings, Shergill secured a total of 3,06,008 votes, finishing third, next to SAD’s Prem Singh Chandumajra and Congress’ Ambika Soni. He secured 28.32 percent votes out of 10,80,626 valid votes.
“People fear Akalis, especially Majithia…they don’t talk about them openly here…I am contesting elections to wipe out drugs from Punjab, besides other issues,” said Shergill.
AAP was also targeting both Majithia and state Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh, claiming that the two enjoys good family relations, and that was why the fromer cief minister opposed CBI probe against him toeing away from the party line.
“When Captain came here to campaign, he did not utter a single word against Majithia,” claimed Shergill during one of his rallies.
Congress, on the other hand, chose lalli Majithia who has been working in the segment since over a decade. The party had dropped him in 2012 assembly polls by replacing him with a lesser-known Shalinderjit Singh Shelly, who could barely save his security deposit from being forfeited as he secured only around 8,000 votes.
lalli Majithia, who contested as an independent, bagged 26,363 votes against winning candidate Bikram Majithia, who polled 73,944 votes.
Putting on a brave face and undeterred by the allegations, Majithia is expecting his development works would prevail upon voters mind than the false accusations.
Majitha has witnessed lot of development works in the past two tenures of the ruling regime for which he was appreciated by many. In contrast, there is a section of voters which believed that Majithia may have involvement in drug racket. They maintained that sale and abuse of drugs have increased under the SAD rule in last 10 years. Some rue over fake FIRs registered against them.
PAST PERFORMANCE
Since 2007, Majithia is holding the fort in Majitha. Out of total 1,15,266 valid votes in 2012 polls, 64 percent, 73,944 votes, were polled in Majithia’s favour, while SRS lalli Majithia, who contested as independent, got 26,363 votes with 22.87 percentage.
Congress’ ‘lesser known’ candidate Shalinderjit Singh Shelly got just 7,629 votes – 6.62 percent – and hardly secure his deposit.
In 2014, despite facing a defeat by more than one lakh votes, Jaitley outwitted Capt Amarinder in two assembly segments, under Amritsar lok Sabha constituency, that is Majitha and Raja Sansi.
While Capt Amarinder got 39,550 votes out of total 1,12,828 valid ones, Jaitley got 60,201, leading the segment by a margin of 20,651 votes. AAP’s Dr Daljit Singh, who finished third, has secured 5,742 votes in Majitha.
In 2007, Majithia got 51,690 votes, that is 55.31 percent, and Congress’ lalli Majithia bagged 28,682 — 30.69 percent.