Shahkot bypoll: SAD, Cong hope to grab AAP share to get edge

Campaigning for the May 28 Punjab assembly bypoll for Shahkot segment is gathering pace as candidates of the three main contenders intensifying door-to-door canvassing and working on realtime strategies. While the state’s ruling party Congress hopes to wrest the seat from Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on the back of being in power, the SAD is hoping to get some anti-incumbency votes. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is hoping to stay alive on the state’s political scene by putting up a decent show despite infighting.

SAD’s Ajit Singh Kohar, whose death necessitated the bypoll and whose son Naib Singh is now contesting, had got nearly 47,000 votes and defeated Congress’ Hardev Singh Ladi Sherowalia by close to 5,000 votes last year when the Congress otherwise got a brute majority of 77 in a House of 117. Congress and the SAD are both now eyeing at least a chunk of 41,000 votes that last year went to the AAP, which finished fewer than 1,000 votes behind Ladi and 6,000 behind the winner.

AAP’s then-candidate Amarjit Singh Thind recently switched to the SAD, hence, Naib Singh said, “Majority of AAP voters have automatically switched to SAD after Thind joined us.” Thind, when contacted, said he has been holding meetings with people who had voted for him to ask them to vote for SAD: “I joined SAD only after taking my voters into confidence.” Naib, who may get some sympathy votes of loyalty towards his father who remained MLA for five terms, further said, “People know the work that my father did under in his two-decade run, and the entire leadership of the SAD is campaigning in the constituency.”

Congress’ Ladi has been covering 16 villages a day, and his political guru and former minister, Rana Gurjit Singh, is also campaigning in at least 10 villages a day, said campaign managers. Ladi said, “Our main agenda is development; and people know the development that our government has done in the short time since coming to the power.” About AAP votes, he said he has “successfully got over 75% of their voters to switch to us”. “People even from SAD are switching to our party,” he claimed.

The AAP has fielded Rattan Singh Kakkar Kalan, a known social worker, but the party is beset with infighting ever since it performed way below the hype in the assembly polls to become a distant principal opposition in the assembly with 20 seats. SAD got 15 seats and its ally BJP got three. State AAP chief Bhagwant Mann has even said the party should not have contested this bypoll and instead focused on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Rattan has been going door to door to make people aware of the “dhakkeshahi” (high-handedness) by both “traditional” parties. He claimed the party has faced no loss after Thind left. “People understand that Thind has betrayed the party. His exit has strengthened us. People had voted for the AAP, not the candidate alone; and the votes are intact.” For him, party’s co-president Balbir Singh, senior leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who is leader of opposition in the assembly, and other MLAs have been campaigning already. AAP’s state affairs in-charge, Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia, is expected to come on May 25.

Ladi has already seen the chief minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, accompany him for the nomination-filing despite the FIR over illegal mining.

For the SAD, “On Monday, former minister Bikram Majithia will hold meetings with the youth, while the SAD president, former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, will come on May 16; leaders will remain in the constituency through the election,” Naib Singh said. A senior leader who is part of the strategy team said, “We are majorly focusing on switching AAP voters to us. We are going door to door to request them to vote for us this time.”