Chandigarh: Jalalabad, a constituency of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and chief minister candidate Sukhbir Singh Badal, in Punjab’s border district of Fazilka, was a hot seat in the 2017 assembly polls.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had then fielded its star campaigner Bhagwant Mann while Congress nominated Ludhiana MP Ravneet Bittu to corner Badal in his home turf.
In 2009, Badal won the Jalalabad constituency in his first attempt, with a record margin of 80,000 votes, or 50% of the votes. But in 2017, he had a tough time defending his bastion.
His victory margin sharply fell from 50,000 votes (34%) in 2012 to a mere 18,000 votes (10%) in 2017. Further in 2019, he faced a personal setback when the party lost the Jalalabad bypoll to Congress by nearly 17,000 votes. The bypoll was held after Badal had vacated the seat and moved to contest from the Ferozepur Lok Sabha seat but failed.
This time he has fielded himself from Jalalabad for the February 20 polls, but both the AAP and the Congress seemed to have made his job easier by nominating turncoats of different parties. Even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Puran Chand is a former Akali leader, who has no electoral history in the past.
AAP’s Jagdeep ‘Goldy’ Kamboj is a former national secretary of the Indian Youth Congress. He fought as an independent candidate in 2019 Jalalabad bypolls but failed badly as he did not get more than 5,000 votes.
The Congress announced former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mohan Singh Phalianwala as its candidate for the Jalalabad seat. He has been two-time MP from Ferozepur and has been associated with the BSP for over three decades. He had also joined AAP in 2016 and contested from the Ferozepur Rural constituency, but lost by more than 40,000 votes.
“By fielding a turncoat who has a history of several electoral defeats, it appears that the Congress has handed over the seat on a platter to Sukhbir Badal,” a local Congress leader told The Wire. However, sources in the Congress claimed that it did not want to give undue attention to Badal by fielding Channi or Sidhu against him, but the local leader said it is a “lame excuse”.
He added, “What was the fun in holding on to the ticket till the last minute if it could not field a popular candidate? At least a local candidate would have been better than a turncoat who has no base in the constituency.”
The Congress had delayed the announcement of a candidate from the Jalalabad constituency, and speculation was rife that it would nominate a heavyweight to make things difficult for Badal who already has a huge responsibility as SAD president to take the party to victory in a do-or-die election.
Congress’s current MLA Raminder Singh Awla, who won the 2019 bypolls against SAD’s Raj Singh Dibiyapur, opted out of the contest, and may join the Akali Dal in a few days, sources said. If that happens, he may be fielded from the Ferozepur Lok Sabha seat once Badal wins Jalalabad and vacates his parliamentary constituency.
Meanwhile, local SAD cadres are very confident of the party’s victory from Jalalabad. Local Akali leader Ashok Aneja told The Wire that Badal will break all previous records by registering a massive win.
“We lost the 2019 bypoll due to manipulation by the Congress. But voters have realised that the level of development seen during SAD’s time…Congress came nowhere near it,” he claimed.
“Ever since Badal became an MLA here, Jalalabad has had a world-class sports stadium, a women’s college, and a new hospital,” he added. “Once our party comes back to power, our focus will be to promote industry and generate employment, in which the Congress failed miserably in the last five years,” he said.
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Rai Sikh voters hold the key
The Jalalabad constituency has approximately 200,000 voters. Nearly half of them are voters from the Rai Sikh caste who hold the key to the victory here.
Prior to August 30, 2007, the Rai Sikh caste was included in the backward classes. Later, it was notified in the Scheduled Caste category, thanks largely to the Akali government’s efforts in fulfilling the community’s long pending demand.
That is why Rai Sikhs have mostly backed Badal, except in the 2019 bypolls, which the party reportedly lost due to his lack of attention.
SAD won the Jalalabad seat in 1997 when it had fielded a local Rai Sikh leader, Sher Singh Ghubaya. After losing in the 2002 election, he won again from here in 2007.
In 2009, Ghubaya vacated the seat for Badal and in return, the party rewarded him with a Lok Sabha ticket from Ferozepur constituency in 2009 and 2014 parliamentary elections.
A local journalist told The Wire that even as the BJP candidate is from the Rai Sikh community, winning election for Badal from Jalalabad will not be difficult because candidates pitched against him are not very strong.
Issues
Despite being a high-profile constituency, there are several issues that need to be addressed in Jalalabad. The constituency has a city as well as 154 villages, out of which ten are located along the India-Pakistan border.
Being a border town, drug trafficking from across the border is a major issue here. Apart from that, civic development is a concern here, especially in the rural areas near the Pakistan border.
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A local politician Malkeet Singh Hira told The Wire that farmers staying in the border areas have been facing a lot of problems for a long time, but have often been ignored. “There are several fields located at the zero line, having no irrigation or power supply facility,” he said.
Singh said the lack of proper education is another major issue here. There is no government degree college in the area where boys and girls can get quality education. “Not many can afford sending their kids to private colleges in nearby towns of Abohar and Fazilka,” he said.
Meanwhile, several locals said that health facilities are also poor. Badal had constructed a 100-bed civil hospital in Jalalabad during his tenure, but neither he nor the Congress were able to arrange adequate number of doctors and paramedical staff.
As far as the city area is concerned, it faces acute water logging problems during the rainy season due to lack of a proper storm sewer system.
Jalalabad is famous for its rice milling industry but the units are scattered. Many of them are situated in the middle of the city, causing huge pollution for the city dwellers.
Vikas Chhabra, a local businessman, told The Wire that Badal had promised to set up a rice hub in the town for its proper growth but the project hasn’t got due attention. “We are hopeful that once he is elected again, the project will see the light of the day,” he added.
Unemployment is also one of the major issues here. The Congress MLA had promised to set up a big private industry to create employment opportunities for the border belt’s youth. But nothing happened. Meanwhile, a large number of unemployed youth have allegedly indulged in drugs and illicit liquor trade.
In some of the villages, distilling illicit liquor, popularly known as “lahan”, has virtually acquired the status of cottage industry in the absence of jobs.
