Chandigarh: It’s not just Uttar Pradesh where some gangsters find politics a safe haven. In Punjab, too, former gangsters, or their family members, are trying their luck in elections, expecting their “popularity” to turn into votes.
Gangster-turned-social activist-turned politician Lakha Sidhana is Simranjit Singh Mann-led Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)’s candidate from Bathinda for the Lok Sabha elections. He is pitted against SAD candidate Harsimrat Kaur Badal who is also the sitting MP from the constituency. The AAP candidate is Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, and former bureaucrat Parampal Kaur is BJP’s candidate.
Sidhana, a 44-year-old former kabaddi player, belongs to Sidhana village of the district and was once a dreaded gangster, accused in almost two dozen cases of murder, attempt to murder, loot and extortion. He was also accused of booth-capturing during elections, apart from violations of the Arms Act.
He was first jailed in 2004 and continued to face multiple cases till 2017. But then, around 10 years ago, he seemingly turned over a new leaf. Social activism and politics soon followed.
Sidhana contested the 2012 assembly polls from Rampura Phul as candidate of the People’s Party of Punjab, formed by former finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal after he left the SAD. At that time, only one case under the Arms Act was pending against Sidhana, according to the affidavit filed with the Election Commission of India.
Though he lost his security deposit in those elections, his social activism then brought him popularity among the youth, whom he exhorted to follow a path unlike his own.
Sidhana further made headlines after he was seriously injured in a violent attack on him during a poll rally in 2013.
He subsequently took up the cause of the Punjabi language and became a prominent face of the 2020-2021 farmers’ protests on the Singhu border along with actor-turned-Sikh separatist activist Deep Sidhu. The two were among those accused of violence in Delhi on Republic Day in 2021.
Sidhana contested the 2022 assembly polls from Maur in Bathinda as a candidate of the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha, a political group formed by a section of farmers who had led the farmers’ agitation. He lost to Sukhveer Maiserkhana, candidate of Punjab’s ruling AAP, but came in second with over 28,000 votes.
A few months after the elections, Sidhana alleged that the AAP was targeting him and reopening cases in which he had been given the clean chit.
Sidhana is not the only one from the clan of Punjab gangsters contesting the polls.
The SAD (Amritsar) has also fielded Bhupinder Singh Bhullar, father of slain gangster Jaipal Bhullar, from the Ferozepur constituency. Bhupinder Singh is a retired Punjab Police inspector.
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Bhupinder and Jaipal
Jaipal remained the most wanted gangster in Punjab for over a decade before he was finally killed in a police encounter in Kolkata in June 2021.
He was wanted in over 40 cases of murder, drug-trafficking and robbery in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.
Once a hammer-thrower, Jaipal graduated from petty crime to forming a gang of highway robbers in 2008. While he was on the run from the police, Bhupinder claimed that he was not in touch with the son and had nothing to do with him.
However, following Jaipal’s encounter, Bhupinder started alleging that his son was killed in a fake encounter and some officials of the Punjab Police were involved in the operation.
Bhupinder is also known for his support for a separate Sikh nation.
He joined the SAD (Amritsar) in March 2024 and was fielded by the party from Ferozepur in the Lok Sabha polls. Following his announcement as the candidate, Bhullar said he aimed to expose the system that “forces youngsters to become gangsters”, adding that he would ensure that fake encounters are stopped and deaths like that of his son are avoided.
Among the many cases registered against Jaipal, the most sensational was his alleged killing of Jaswinder Singh Rocky, a gangster-turned-politician from Abohar, Fazilka district.
Rocky was shot dead in Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh in June 2016 allegedly by Jaipal and his gang to avenge the killing of Jaipal’s friend and gangmate Shera Khubban. Rocky was 50 years old and all set to contest the 2017 assembly elections.
A popular name in the world of crime and politics, Rocky was considered to be a close aid of UP gangster Mukhtar Ansari. Rocky had earlier contested the 2012 assembly polls from Fazilka.
In those elections, he gave the BJP candidate Surjit Kumar Jyani a run for his money. While Jyani won, Rocky was a close second, losing by a margin of only 1,600 votes.
In 2017, his sister Rajdeep Kaur contested the elections from the same constituency but lost.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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