Punjab | Why Badals are slugging it out on their home turf in Bathinda

With bright yellow flags aflutter on rooftops in Bhai Kera village, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s cavalcade weaves its way through narrow but cemented roads in the blazing sun.

She’s addressed a dozen small rallies and has another dozen to go. Already her voice is hoarse as she reminds the crowd about how the Akali Dal, a regional outfit fighting for local causes, has brought the MSP (minimum support price for crops) issue to the centre stage at the cost of losing power.

Dissing her opponents, the Congress and the AAP, she seeks votes in the name of five-time Punjab CM and father-in-law, Late Parkash Singh Badal.

Three-time MP

Harsimrat is three-time MP from Bathinda but the going isn’t easy even on home turf. The announcement of her candidature was, in fact, delayed in the first list as the party weighed its chances.

They were seen to give up power fighting for the cause of Punjab. She resigned as a Union minister in September 2020 soon after the three contentious farm laws were announced.

Party chief Sukhbir Badal has chosen to sit it out this time quoting the ‘one party, one ticket’ rule, ostensibly to keep ticket seekers at bay. Old timers like Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who returned to the party fold recently, had been demanding a ticket for his son, backed by another native who returned, Bibi Jagir Kaur.

Badal has ignored such demands and instead has been addressing rallies across the state.

Eye on Assembly polls

“The Akalis are actually preparing for the Assembly elections. They are reminding the voter that they believe in putting regional issues at the centre stage nationally and will sacrifice everything for Punjab’s interests," said Prof Pramod Kumar of the Institute of Development and Communication, Chandigarh.

"They are hoping that this will pay dividends in the long run and benefit them in the state polls,” Kumar added.

For the moment, in the five-cornered contest where the AAP and the Congress are giving the Akalis a run, the Badals are acutely aware that each of their rivals has been a member of the SAD at some point or the other.

And that they are aware of the chinks in fortress Bathinda. As it is, Harsimrat’s victory margin too has been dipping from 1.20 lakh in 2009 to 19,000 in 2014 and increased slightly to 21,000 in 2019.

Mann under BJP influence?

But that’s not stopping Harsimrat from trying to draw a wedge in the Opposition camp. She says Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is now trying to break away from party chief Arvind Kejriwal and work with the BJP.

“They’ve come together so that the Akalis lose. Mann refused the VRS (voluntary retirement scheme) application of the BJP candidate from Bathinda and then it was suddenly accepted in 24 hours. So he’s totally under them,” she told this reporter.

She’s referring to BJP candidate, Parampal Kaur, whose father in law Sikandar Singh Maluka, was a two-time minister in the SAD-BJP government and husband was the SAD’s Zilla Parishad chairperson from Bathinda. Kaur, a promotee IAS officer, applied for VRS days before her candidature was announced.

Tough contest 

The Badals are facing a tough fight from the AAP, which has fielded cabinet minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, the giant killer who defeated the venerable Parkash Singh Badal from his fortress of Lambi in the 2022 Assembly elections by 11,000 votes.

This was Khudian’s first election. His father had coincidentally served in the Prakash Singh Badal government in the 1970s. Khudian junior knows the constituency well having been a SAD worker managing Badal’s constituency before switching to the AAP.

The Congress has fielded Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu whose base has been the Talwandi Sabo Assembly constituency, which is a part of the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency. Sidhu returned to the Congress fold six months ago from the Akali Dal. And while his base is Talwandi Sabo, the Congress feels he has a good chance this time around.

Fight for Panthic vote bank

Chipping away at the Panthic vote bank, the traditional vote bank of the Akalis, is gangster-turned-social activist, Lakha Sidhana, from the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar). Sidhana had hit the headlines when he along with Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu was accused of instigating farmers during the Red Fort violence in Delhi on Republic Day in 2021.

Punjab, which was ruled either by the Akalis or the Congress till 2022, is one of the worst fiscally managed states with a debt to GDP ratio of 46.8 per cent.

The state is having to borrow money to pay salaries and also service the interest on loans. 

Punjab goes to polls on June 1, the final phase of Election 2024. The results will be announced on June 4.