Winning the Jalalabad Assembly constituency since 2009, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal is eyeing another victory from his bastion this time, where he is facing three turncoats. Unlike the previous State Assembly polls, Sukhbir sees well-placed to regain the seat, which is currently represented by Congress’ Raminder Singh Awla.
Awla, a first-timer, won the Akali bastion in 2019 by-elections after Sukhbir vacated the seat following his win in 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Ferozepur — a Parliamentary constituency of which Jalalabad is also a part. He had defeated SAD’s Raj Singh Dibipura by a margin of more than 16,000 votes.
In 2017, Sukhbir faced the toughest electoral battle in his political career, facing two stalwarts — Aam Aadmi Party’s Bhagwant Mann and Congress’ Ravneet Singh Bittu — turning Jalalabad into a hot seat. However, this time winning the seat appears to be a cakewalk for the SAD chief, who has also been declared as the Chief Ministerial face for the SAD-BSP combine.
Sukhbir is pitted against three turncoats fielded by mainstream parties — Congress’ Mohan Singh Phalianwala is BSP’s former MP, AAP’s Jagdeep “Goldy” Kamboj is former national secretary of Congress and BJP’s Puran Chand is a former Akali leader.
Kamboj is the only candidate who can hope to put up some contest against Sukhbir, thanks to favourable sentiment for the AAP in certain pockets of Jalalabad.
Being a Jat Sikh, Sukhbir holds sway in the constituency dominated by the Rai Sikh community may be attributed to his family name or the position in the party, or his development works in the segment that lies close to Indo-Pak international border.
Voters agreed that roads were constructed and infrastructure was improved during SAD’s term, but they also maintained that no effort was made to improve their living standards.
Of the total 2.14 lakh voters in Jalalabad, more than half are from the Rai Sikh community. Interestingly, Sukhbir’s friend-turned-foe Sher Singh Ghubaya, a former Akali leader from the Rai Sikh community who was representing the Jalalabad segment before he gave up the seat for Sukhbir in 2009 bypolls, is now with the Congress. Notably, Sukhbir also has a stronghold over the people of the Rai Sikh community, which eventually results in the division of their votes.
Sukhbir’s hold in Jalalabad can also be gauged from the fact that the sitting Congress MLA Awla had decided to withdraw his candidature from the seat against the SAD president.
Awla, who became the first Congress MLA to win from Jalalabad in 12 years, had sought a party ticket from the neighboring Gur Har Sahai constituency, which is also his hometown. However, Congress refused Awla’s plea to change the seat being a sitting MLA, thus denying him the party ticket, and fielding two-time MP from Ferozepur Mohan Singh Falianwala, a former BSP leader.
Phalianwala, who had won Ferozepur parliamentary constituency twice as a BSP candidate, had earlier also contested the Assembly elections thrice from different political parties, but could never win.
Fighting an image of a seasonal turncoat, Phalianwala is also struggling to keep the Congress vote base intact in the wake of AAP’s emergence, while banking on consolidating electoral support of Dalits and other communities after the announcement of Charanjit Singh Channi’s name as its CM face for Punjab polls.
Hailing from Rai Sikh community, Phalianwala also faces a challenge to exert a pull on the entire community as BJP has also fielded a leader from the dominant caste.
BJP’s Puran Chand, a former Akali leader, is striving hard for making his presence felt in the primarily rural segment, where anger still prevails against the saffron party over the farm laws, which now stand repealed.
Besides, the BJP itself does not have any party cadre in the segment as it has all along been contesting the seat in alliance with the Akali Dal. But this time, SAD has tied up with the BSP, while the BJP has forged an alliance with two splinter groups - each led by former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Akali stalwart Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.
Amidst all this, AAP’s Goldy Kamboj is banking on the party’s call to end dynastic politics. Riding high on AAP’s popularity wave, he is wooing the young voters. A former youth Congress leader, Goldy is being liked by the young voters, who are also impressed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Youngsters believed that though infrastructural development has been done in the halqa, no effort was made to raise people’s standard of living. “Unemployment is a big problem here. We don’t have any big industry in the area where one can get jobs. The infrastructural facility is fine, but work is also needed...what we would do with the roads and buildings if we don’t have a job to earn and food to eat,” said a young voter.
Not only the youth, but the voters of backward sections of the rural areas are also not happy with Sukhbir. “We are still living under the same conditions...In fact, Sukhbir hardly comes here. Only the local Akali leaders are active here, who discriminate with us,” said another voter.
Sharing a 40-km-long border with Pakistan, the Jalalabad constituency, comprising 154 villages along with Jalalabad town, has witnessed development over the past decade. Sukhbir has made concrete paved roads in every village and interlocking tiles have been installed in the middle of these concrete roads so that these roads do not have to be demolished for laying sewerage and water pipelines if needed in the future. Besides, a civil hospital has been set up in Jalalabad city and a flyover was constructed on Muktsar road.