Chandigarh: Of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, the Congress seems unable to find a suitable candidate for Bathinda, a Bania-dominated urban centre where the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine has fielded union minister and sitting MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Harsimrat is the daughter-in-law of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.
The seat is a pocket borough of the Akalis and Congress leaders appear cagey about offering themselves to fight here.
ThePrint learnt that Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu, wife of cabinet minister and Congress star campaigner Navjot Singh Sidhu, was offered the seat but she has refused, saying the Congress should offer the seat to “wives of other senior leaders in the party”.
The Sidhus are seemingly peeved with the party after Navjot Kaur was denied the Chandigarh ticket for which she had applied and had staked a strong claim.
Very few applicants
Sources told ThePrint that the party received less than a half a dozen applications to this seat. While a majority are local inconsequential leaders, the former MLA of Sardulgarh, Ajit Inder Singh Mofar, and Mohit Mahindra, son of cabinet minister Brahm Mohindra, are among those pushing for a ticket.
Mahindra is keen to introduce his son into electoral politics, while Mofar is a two-time MLA who had lost in the 2017 assembly polls. But the party is not sure of the winnability of these two and is looking for a more robust candidate.
The party, the sources add, was keen on state Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal contesting from the constituency but he too is said to have refused.
Manpreet had lost to Harsimrat in 2014 by almost 20,000 votes in the Lok Sabha elections here. The two are related — Manpreet is the first cousin of former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is Harsimrat’s husband.
Harsimrat has “challenged” Manpreet to take on the fight, adding that he has abandoned the constituency completely. “The 2014 loss still rankles in Manpreet’s mind. He should accept his loss gracefully and respect the public mandate,” she said, in a statement issued in Bathinda on 16 March.
“As far as I am concerned, I am always ready to contest against him. He is welcome for another round anytime.”
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Other contenders
The name of Raninder Singh, son of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh too had been doing the rounds but the party has been told that he is not interested in contesting these Lok Sabha elections at all.
In the 2009 parliamentary polls, Harsimrat had defeated Raninder by a margin of over a lakh votes at Bathinda. The name of Amarinder’s grandson, Nirvan Singh, son of his daughter Jaya Inder Kaur too was discussed but no decision has been taken.
Former Indian Youth Congress president, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, the sitting MLA from Gidderbaha, too is being considered for the seat. Warring is from Rahul Gandhi’s youth brigade but is upset with the party for not being made a cabinet minister.
One of the major reasons for the apprehensions among prospective Congress candidates is that the constituency has been an Akali stronghold.
Since 1957, the Akalis have won Bathinda six times, the Congress has held the seat thrice and the CPI has won twice. Till 2009, Bathinda was a reserved constituency.
Since then, however, Harsimrat has not lost an election here. In the last elections, she was locked in a triangular contest with the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
This time around, while there is no prominent face being pushed by AAP, a serious contender is AAP rebel Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who has declared himself as the joint candidate of the Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) for Bathinda.
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After leaving the Akali Dal, Shri Manpreet Singh Badal had told Shri Shekhar Gupta in an interview that the entire state machinery, from CS to patwari and DGP to constable, had worked to make Sardarni Harsimrat Kaur Badal win. Well, this would be a good time to even the score.