Nearly a dozen candidates in fray for the 13 parliamentary seats in Punjab have their “duplicates”. They may not share political ideologies, certainly not the party symbols. But when it comes to their names, you just cannot differentiate.
Out here, everything is in the name. As the lesser known faces in the Punjab political scene are sharing their names with the who’s who of prominent political parties, there is confusion. Turning on to the father’s name for help does not really make a difference. For, some “namesake” candidates even have similar father’s names.
Call it a complete coincidence, or an attempt to puzzle the voters, out of 253 candidates across the State, 11 share their names with nine candidates from the prominent political parties of the State in the same constituency.
The “comedy of errors” first surfaced with another Manpreet Singh Badal filing his nomination papers as an ‘independent’ candidate from Bathinda, the home turf of Congress-People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) combine candidate Manpreet Singh Badal.
The “comedy” is turning out to be a “disaster” of sorts for the newly-formed alliance as the ‘independent’ Manpreet has been allotted the ‘kite’ symbol, which was Manpreet-led PPP’s election symbol during 2012 Punjab Assembly polls.
The former Finance Minister has decided to contest polls on the Congress symbol – hand, his namesake has applied for ‘kite’ in an apparent attempt to confuse the voters and taking advantage of similarity in names. What is more, the independent candidate has went on to add “Badal” in his name contending that he too hail from the same Badal village as Manpreet Singh Badal.
This is not all! Their fathers’ name sounds similar. While Gurdas Badal, younger brother of the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, is the father of Congress-PPP candidate Manpreet, independent candidate Manpreet’s father name is Gurdev Singh.
If that is not enough, other than these two Manpreet Singh Badals contesting from Bathinda lok Sabha seat, there are two Amarinder Singhs and two Aruns from Amritsar, two Bittus and two Simarjeet Singhs in ludhiana, two Joginder Singhs and three Paramjit Kaurs in Faridkot, two Bhagwants and three Sukhdevs from Sangrur parliamentary seat.
In the fiery ballot-battle between two political stalwarts — Congress’ Capt Amarinder Singh and SAD-BJP’s Arun Jaitley — their namesakes too have thrown their hats in the ring from the holy city.
A businessman with a total income of Rs 1.90 lakh and total assets worth Rs 60,000, 36-year-old Amarinder Singh has entered the fray against the 72-year-old millionaire Patiala Royal. Their rival, Jaitley, too is facing his namesake, luckily with different last name.
Arun Kumar Joshi, 40-year-old property dealer with three pending cases against him, has entered the electoral fray to try his luck. A 10+2 pass-out believed that winning election would not be possible for him against a prominent lawyer and veteran politician.
In Faridkot reserved constituency, the candidates of both mainstream parties — Joginder Singh Panjgrain from Congress, and SAD-BJP’s Paramjit Kaur Gulshan — are facing candidates with same names.
As sitting MP and Akali Dal women wing president Gulshan is seeking her re-election from Faridkot, she is not only facing Congress’ candidate and two-time MlA Panjgrain, but two other Paramjit Kaurs and another Joginder Singh
While 47-year-old Paramjit is Bahujan Shakti Party’s candidate, another Paramjit is 30-year-old independent candidate. Congress’ 55-year-old candidate is facing his namesake Joginder Singh — 75-year-old retired officer who is contesting from Faridkot as an independent.
After the Congress high command shifted sitting Anandpur Sahib MP Ravneet Singh Bittu to ludhiana in a four cornered contest, he would face another “Bittu” — a 41-year-old Republican Party of India’s candidate.
Bittus’ rival independent candidate Simarjeet Singh Bains, also sitting MlA from Atam Nagar Assembly segment, has another Simrajeet Singh in the offing. Also contesting as independent, this 28-year-old Simarjeet is an agriculturist, and a matric pass-out.
In Sangrur lok Sabha seat, actor-turned-politician Bhagwant Mann, the Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate, found 31-year-old Bhagwant Singh as his rival independent candidate. To make matters worse for him, his namesake has got ‘kite’ symbol on which Mann contested 2012 Assembly polls as PPP’s candidate from lehragaga.
As if Akali stalwart Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa was not enough for his two young rivals — sitting Congress MP Vijay Inder Singla and AAP’s Bhagwant Mann — two more Sukhdevs are in fray from Sangrur.
While one of them, 60-year-old pensioner Sukhdev Ram Sharma, has been fielded by Communist Party of India (CPI), another Sukhdev Singh, 46-year-old businessman, has decided to contest as an independent.