Chandigarh: Akashdeep Singh, a Sikh boy in his early teens, posted a video on his Instagram account Sunday, appealing to the people of Gidderbaha in Punjab to vote for his father Bhagwant Singh alias ‘Pardhan Mantri Bajeke’ in the assembly bypolls.
Bajeke is a radical Sikh preacher and associate of separatist Amritpal Singh, the newly-elected MP from Khadoor Sahib. Both are currently lodged in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail.
“Among the candidates Bhai Amritpal Singh Ji has announced for the assembly bypolls is my father, who is contesting from Gidderbaha. He has been fielded by the sangat (people) and will win with their support. All of you, please ensure his victory by voting for him,” Bajeke’s son said in his video message.
He went on, “Bhai Amritpal Singh and his close aides, like my father, were only working to eradicate drugs from Punjab. But the government invoked the provisions of the National Security Act (NSA) against them and put them in jail. My only request to people is to ensure my father’s victory with the maximum number of votes.”
The Gidderbaha assembly seat fell vacant along with Barnala, Dera Baba Nanak and Chabbewal, after their respective MLAs — Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Gurmeet Singh Heyer, Sukhjinder Randhawa and Raj Kumar Chabbewal — were elected Members of Parliament in the Lok Sabha polls.
The four seats may see bypolls along with the assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand slated for October this year, or before.
Political analysts say that Amritpal, emboldened by his own victory in Khadoor Sahib and that of Sarabjit Singh Khalsa, the son of former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assassin Beant Singh, in Faridkot, wants to field his supporters on these assembly seats.
“He (Amritpal) has so far announced the names of three candidates, and not four. Kulwant Singh Rauke from Barnala, Bhagwant Singh ‘Bajeke’ from Gidderbaha and Daljeet Singh Kalsi from Dera Baba Nanak. Although four seats are now vacant, Amritpal has not yet announced any candidate from Chabbewal, a seat reserved for Scheduled Castes,” Rauke’s cousin, Maha Singh, told The Print Monday.
Rauke and Kalsi are also detained in Dibrugarh jail with Amritpal and Bajeke.
Maha Singh said he spoke to Rauke Saturday, when he confirmed his plan to contest the assembly by-elections on the Barnala seat.
“Amritpal and his aides were already deliberating, when I called Rauke five days back, but he confirmed his plan Saturday. He also told me to get in touch with the Panthic organisations in Punjab for the funds needed for his campaign. Kulwant and others intend to run as independent candidates, once the bypolls are announced,” said Maha.
Meanwhile, Kalsi’s wife, Narinder Kaur, released a video on social media Sunday, announcing that he intended to contest the assembly by-elections from Dera Baba Nanak.
“I am Mrs Daljeet Kalsi. I visited Kalsi Saab in Dibrugarh Jail yesterday. He is in chardi kalan (he is doing well). He wanted me to share his decision about contesting the bypolls for the Dera Baba Nanak assembly constituency. Dera Baba Nanak is also his maternal village,” Narinder said in chaste Punjabi. “We seek your support. We will provide you with more details by holding a press conference in the coming days.”
Daljeet Kalsi is a former Punjabi film actor, who has appeared in the movies, Sardar Saab (2017) and Jagga Jiunda E (2018), which also starred Bollywood veteran Jackie Shroff.
Rauke, 38, has previously worked for Punjab State Power Corporation. “His father Charhat Singh was also detained under the NSA in 1987 and never returned after being picked up by the police in 1993. Kulwant’s uncle, Gurmail Singh, died in Operation Blue Star in June 1984,” said his cousin, Maha Singh.
“He was close to Deep Sidhu, the founder of ‘Waris Punjab De’, who died in a road accident sometime back. It was because of his association with Sidhu that he came in contact with Amritpal Singh,” he added.
Bhagwant ‘Bajeke’ was a farmer and a social media influencer from Bajeke village in Moga district. He was fond of posting reels and videos on social media. His Instagram account has now been restricted.
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Dangerous trend, says Jakhar
Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar said that this was a dangerous trend and a bad omen for the state which has seen decades of extremism.
Jakhar told ThePrint Monday that the biggest reason behind the victories of the likes of Amritpal Singh and Sarabjit Singh, and the new development with regards to the Amritpal’s aides announcing plans to contest assembly bypolls, is the vacuum of leadership in Punjab.
“After Captain Saab (Captain Amarinder Singh) stepped down as chief minister in September 2021, there has been a complete vacuum of leadership in the state. Charanjit Singh Channi, who took over after Captain Saab, was a puppet of his party’s central leadership, and the present one (Bhagwant Mann) is not taken seriously by people,” Jakhar said.
He added, “The weakening of the Shiromani Akali Dal has further created conditions favourable for the radical forces to raise their heads in the state once again.”
Jakhar said that the victory of Simranjit Singh Mann, former IPS officer and president of SAD (Amritsar), who is known for his radical views, in the by-election for Sangrur Lok Sabha seat vacated by CM Bhagwant Mann in 2022, was the first green shoot of this “dangerous trend”.
He said that Simranjit Mann had not won any election since 1999, but he managed to win the Sangrur Parliamentary seat, when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government led by Bhagwant Mann had just taken over.
“This provided a fertile ground for radical elements and Amritpal, who had been living in Dubai for a decade, found the conditions in Punjab conducive to his nefarious plans. Despite his dubious activities, the Mann government didn’t act until a total collapse of law and order was witnessed in Punjab, when he and his men launched an attack on a police station in Ajnala,” the BJP leader said.
He claimed that even Sarabjit Khalsa had contested assembly elections thrice before this and had lost each time, but the current environment proved conducive to his victory this time.
Jakhar said this was the reason he always considered a strong SAD a “safety valve” for Punjab as the party provides a platform to those with radical ideologies to voice their concerns.
“When I analyse several recent developments in Punjab, I find these are manifestations of people’s disillusionment with the present leadership in the state. This also reflected in the recent incident at Chandigarh airport, where a CISF constable from Punjab slap actor-politician Kangana Ranaut. Otherwise, why would anyone react this way for a comment that was allegedly made three years back?” Jakhar remarked.
He further said that such developments are also “a larger manifestation of the lawlessness that prevails in Punjab today”.
“The Punjab and Haryana High Court has intervened thrice on the issue of lawlessness. Jailed criminals are giving interviews to TV channels and the government is unaware of how that happened,” he added.
‘Manifestation of people’s anger against Dilli Darbar’
However, Jagrup Singh Sekhon, a political science professor at Amritsar’s Guru Nanak Dev University with expertise in state politics, socio-political movements, border studies and election studies, said some of the candidates being fielded by Amritpal might just lose their security deposits instead of winning the elections.
“I am saying this because the circumstances under which Amritpal and Sarabjit Khalsa won the elections were different than what they are going to be now. Their victories were manifestations of the collective anger of the farming community against Narendra Modi and Bhagwant Mann. People expressed their anger against the ‘Dilli Darbar’ (ruling dispensation at the Centre). This was true both in the cases of the BJP and the AAP,” Sekhon said.
He added: “Modi’s speeches during the election campaign targetting the minorities also worked against him with respect to the farming community, even though his polarisation bids helped him increase BJP’s vote share to 18 percent in this year’s parliamentary polls.”
Sekhon further said that in 2014, the people of Punjab had given AAP four seats with a vote percentage of 24.4 percent, which was almost at par with SAD. AAP failed to capitalise on it in 2019, but won enough seats in the 2022 assembly elections to form its government in the state.
“People had a lot of expectations from AAP. However, the Bhagwant Mann-led government disappointed them, and was seen as controlled by ‘Dilli Darbar’, a phenomenon severely despised by the people of Punjab. In the 2024 polls, the farming community, comprising the Sikhs and a large majority of Dalits, vented their anger against the ‘Dilli Darbar’, ensuring the victories of Amritpal Singh and Sarabjit Singh Khalsa. But I don’t expect a repeat of this in the assembly bypolls,” said Sekhon.
He cited the example of Simranjit Singh Mann, who has just emerged from the “wilderness”, more than two decades after he was last elected to Lok Sabha — in 1989 and 1999.
“It was only after the disillusionment with the AAP government that people of Bhagwant Mann’s own constituency elected Simranjit Mann. This was because the chief minister had taken his constituents for granted,” he added.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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