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As its 13 Lok Sabha seats go to polls on June 1, a look at the previous six general elections in Punjab reveals that in almost all, barring the 1998 and 2009 elections, the state has preferred the the party or alliance which has ended up in the Opposition benches in Parliament.
Last week, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal condemned the extension of Amritpal Singh’s detention under the National Security Act (NSA) by one year. The radical preacher Amritpal recently won the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat as an Independent while being in Dibrugarh jail in Assam.
THE PROPOSAL of INDIA bloc’s Chandigarh candidate, Manish Tewari, that the joint Punjab and Haryana capital be made a “city-state” was one of the issues that drew fire from politicians in Punjab across party lines during the elections.
Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, the 45-year-old son of Beant Singh, one of the two assassins of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, is a regular contender in Punjab elections. This time, he has entered the fray as an Independent from the Scheduled Caste-reserved Faridkot Lok Sabha seat with the 2015 Guru Granth Sahib desecration case as his primary campaign plank.
The scene in Satoj is like any other. The road to the village awaits repair, a self-help group’s building is under construction, the local pond is as dry as a bone, and the tree guards around the pond do not have trees. Only as a posse of police personnel guarding a house come into sight does one realise it is not a village but the home of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
Addressing a rally in Khetla village in the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency on May 18, the Congress’s candidate Sukhpal Singh Khaira had called for bringing a law in Punjab along the lines of neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, which would bar a migrant, he said, from buying land or becoming voters or getting government jobs if that person does not fulfil certain state-stipulated conditions.
For the first time since 1996, the BJP will contest the June 1 Lok Sabha elections in Punjab alone and not in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Helming the party’s affairs in the state is former Congress leader Sunil Jakhar who seemingly has his task cut out as the party’s candidates face backlash from farmers in a state where the BJP has yet to make inroads. In mostly rural areas of the state, protesters have stopped BJP candidates from campaigning.
As the BJP increasingly looks to expand in Punjab and grow out of its image of being an urban Hindu party, it is increasingly likely that it will come in conflict with its former ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Sikh religious establishment on which the Akalis have a hold.