Gurdaspur: Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency, which has been one of the high profile seats for a long time, is having to struggle hard to find its strong candidate. Till now neither Aam Aadmi Party has been able to decide any candidate from this seat, nor Congress, nor Bharatiya Janata Party nor Shiromani Akali Dal has declared its candidate. After the break of the Akali-BJP alliance, now all four parties will contest elections separately from this constituency. Since the contest is not one-sided or two-sided but quadrangular, every party is looking at the possibility of victory. In such a situation, every party is trying to field such a candidate who can easily win this seat for the party. While other political parties are internally gauging the pulse of voters, Congress has adopted the medium of communication to find its candidate.
According to the information, the Congress high command is adopting this method in some assembly constituencies of Punjab. Accordingly, a call is received on the mobile number of the general public asking him to state his first choice among the 4 candidates. These four probable candidates include the names of District President of Youth Congress and Chairman of Gurdaspur Municipal Council Advocate Baljit Singh Pahda, former Pathankot MLA Amit Vij, former Congress Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. This survey being conducted by the party has proved that the ticket on Gurdaspur seat will be given to only one of the above four. If we look at the political background of these four candidates, the contest looks quite interesting. Among them, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa have spent several decades in Congress and have held many important positions.
According to sources, in the initial phase both of them had expressed their inability to contest the Lok Sabha elections. Because he wants to remain active in Punjab politics. It will also be very interesting to see what will be their final decision if the party high command still asks him to contest the elections. Both of them are in support of Gurdaspur MLA Birindermeet Singh Pahra. Whereas two-time MLA Barindermeet Singh Pahda is in favor of his younger brother Baljit Singh Pahda not contesting the elections himself. His argument is that if he himself contests the elections, conditions will be created to contest the by-elections in Gurdaspur also. Baljit Singh Pahra also has a lot of experience in politics. He has been the chairman of Milk Plant Gurdaspur. He is also the current president of Municipal Council Gurdaspur and had won the election of District Youth Congress President by not a big margin. Baljit Singh Pahda has also demonstrated his ability by gathering thousands of people in the Youth Congress rally in Gurdaspur on March 2. If Baljit Pahra gets the ticket, he will be the youngest ever Congress candidate from Gurdaspur seat. While Tript Bajwa is 81 years old and Sukhjinder Randhawa is 65 years old. Similarly, former Pathankot MLA Amit Vij is a possible youth candidate. Amit Vij became MLA by winning from Pathankot seat in 2017 and lost the election in 2022. Amit Vij is considered to be a young as well as a skilled politician.
Hindu Sikh factor will also play an important role
Be it assembly elections or Lok Sabha elections, the factor of Hindu, Sikh and caste divisions always plays an important role. In these Lok Sabha elections, a lot of homework is being done on this factor by the parties before finalizing the name of the candidate. Gurdaspur seat consists of 9 constituencies in which 3 constituencies Pathankot, Sujanpur and Bhoa are known as Hindu belt, remaining 6 constituencies Gurdaspur, Dinanagar, Batala, Kadi, Fatehgarh Churia and Dera Baba Nanak have majority of Sikh voters. Is. Because of these equations the Pahara family is more optimistic. On several occasions in the past too, MLA Barindermeet Singh Pahra has openly said that he has been getting the support of the Hindu community along with Sikh votes, due to which he has been successful in winning the elections twice in a row. According to sources, Congress may announce its candidate soon.