Aping the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) strategy of fielding known and popular faces among people, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is banking on a social worker to conquer the Patiala Assembly segment, known to be Congress’ fortress.
SAD has fielded Bhagwan Das Juneja, social activist and a known face among the people of Patiala, to deal with AAP’s upsurge in the State and in Patiala, besides Congress’ Patiala Royal family.
SAD president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal maintained that the party opted for Juneja as SAD-BJP candidate for Patiala bye-poll considering his “services to the society”.
“The people of Patiala are all set to vote for social worker Bhagwan Das Juneja to end Rajwarashahi era from Patiala legislative constituency,” said Sukhbir while addressing a gathering in Patiala before Juneja filed his nomination papers.
Juneja, accompanied by Sukhbir, Cabinet Minister Sikander Singh Maluka, Surjit Singh Rakhra and Chief Parliamentary Secretary NK Sharma filed his nomination as SAD candidate in the office of Patiala SDM Gurpal Singh Chehal.
Congress has fielded its four-time Patiala MP and former Union Minister Preneet Kaur, who had recently faced defeat by the hands of AAP’s Dr Dharamveera Gandhi during 2014 lok Sabha polls. AAP, on the other hand, has fielded a former Akali leader Harjeet Singh Adaltiwala.
Showering praises on Juneja, Sukhbir said: “Similar to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Juneja has also started his career from a tea stall and reached heights but never left any opportunity to serve the society. One could easily see trees planted for environment conservation and benches installed beneath them by Juneja for common people to enjoy the nature. Even kids of the city are aware of the long list of contributions made by Juneja in social welfare.”
Drawing a comparison between the candidates of SAD-BJP combine and Congress, Sukhbir said that on one hand, alliance has opted for a candidate who is from the people and for the people, and on other hand, Congress candidate is from a Maharaja family which is accessible to common people only during polls.
Taking a dig at former Patiala MlA and Amritsar MP Capt Amarinder Singh, Sukhbir said that people of Amritsar were repenting on their decision as Maharaja Sahib went to city only once after winning the parliamentary election.
“People of Amritsar are not aware of Capt Amarinder’s real face but Patialvis have witnessed this time and again. I am quite sure that amid this hot weather, people of Patiala are going to miss Amarinder even during election campaign,” he said.
Sukhbir also appealed the voters of Patiala to question Preneet Kaur that why she failed to bring any project or scheme during 10-year-long Congress led UPA regime for the development of Patiala despite being minister in the government. He said that Preneet never bothered for the development of Patiala otherwise it could be an easy task for her. Thanking the gathering for making the rally a grand success, Juneja said that working for social cause was always his passion and victory in this poll would strengthen him to contribute in social works more effectively.
He said that he has decided to fight this bye poll as he has many dreams for the development of the Patiala city which could be fulfilled only after becoming a part of SAD-BJP government.
Juneja appealed the voters of Patiala to vote for SAD-BJP to ensure the speedy development of the city.