Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Panthic citadel of Khadoor Sahib set to see ‘locals-versus-outsiders’ contest

With the parliamentary poll campaign hotting up in Punjab, the Khadoor Sahib seat, long known as a Panthic stronghold, is all set to witness a four-cornered contest wherein two of the four main candidates are from outside the constituency.

Since 1977, voters of the segment (earlier Tarn Taran) have elected candidates of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), except in 1992 when the party boycotted the Lok Sabha polls.

While Congress candidate Jasbir Singh Gill ‘Dimpa’, who was elected as Beas MLA in 2002 but lost in 2007, is a local as he hails from Lidhar village near Rayya in the Baba Bakala (formerly Beas) assembly segment, the SAD nominee, Bibi Jagir Kaur, belongs to Kapurthala district’s Begowal village which is part of the Hoshiarpur constituency.

However, Jagir Kaur is quick to dismiss the ‘outsider’ tag.

“I want to tell those who are calling me an outsider that this segment was my ‘karambhoomi’ (place where one works or has worked). I was closely associated with the segment when I headed the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president that observed the 400th martyrdom of fifth Sikh master Guru Arjan Dev at Tarn Taran in 2004,” Bibi has been saying while addressing poll gatherings in the constituency.

Like Dimpa, Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) nominee Paramjit Kaur Khalra, widow of slain human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, is also a local as she belongs to Khalra village in the Khemkaran assembly segment of Tarn Taran district.

Like SAD, its breakaway faction Shiromani Akali Dal (Taksali) has not fielded its candidate from within the constituency that straddles the Majha, Doaba and Malwa belts.

The party nominee, General JJ Singh (retd), is from Patiala district. The splinter group president and sitting MP Ranjit Singh Brahmpura is from the segment.

Interestingly, the contest in the seat is also going to be between victims of Sikh militancy and those of the counter-insurgency operations.

Dimpa was injured by militants in 1987 when he was going to his native village. Earlier, his father, and Beas MLA, Sant Singh was shot dead by militants in April 1986, when he was returning home after paying obeisance at a gurdwara.

On the other hand, Bibi Khalra’s husband Jaswant Singh Khalra was allegedly kidnapped and killed by cops after he uncovered gross violations of human rights committed by the Punjab Police on the pretext of rooting out militancy of which this constituency was a hotbed.

While Khalra is raising the issues of human rights violations in Punjab in the past, Dimpa is raking up the sacrilege and drugs issues.

The Taksalis are holding both SAD and Congress responsible for degeneration of Panthic values among the Sikhs.