With just two days left for polling in four seats in Punjab, it seems that it is clash of clans (Badal family and the Amarinder Singh family) rather than a political fight.
Voting in Bathinda, Sangrur, Patiala besides Ferozepur is due on May 7 while the remaining nine constituencies in Punjab will go to the polls in the fifth and the last phase of the elections on May 13.
Bathinda and Patiala are among the important constituencies in the first phase of elections in the state. Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal's wife Harsimrat is the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate against former chief minister Amarinder Singh's son Raninder Singh (Congress). Also, for the Patiala seat, former chief minister Amarinder Singh wife Preneet Kaur will lock horns with SAD contestant Prem Singh Chandumajra.
Interestingly, while deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has claimed that the coming election is a fight between two political families: the Badal family and the Patiala royal family currently headed by former chief minister Amarinder Singh, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal clarified that it is a fight between two political parties - Congress and SAD-BJP.
Both aspirants for the Bathinda seat have announced initiatives for the constituency if voted to power. Harsimrat Badal says she will set up a reverse osmosis system in every village, improve education and irrigation facilities in area, develop industry, set up technical university besides women’s employment.
Raninder Singh promises more or less the same set of things: industry in the area, two-fold increase in widow and oldage pension, overall development including health, education, infrastructure, drinking water.
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An interesting feature of this election - like the previous ones - is the role of the Dera followers. A Dera is a single person setting up a religious institution for social or educational activities. There are thousands of deras, big and small, all over north India, headed by Sikh or Hindu chiefs.
The Radhasoami Satsang Beas is one such. The Nirankaris have their own deras. The logic is that as the Akal Takht, the highest Sikh religious body, cannot be present everywhere to translate on the ground, the tenets of Sikhism, anyone who wants to, can set up a dera to preach and practice a religion that technically does not recognise caste.
Dera followers are likely to play a pivotal role in this election. With over 400,000 followers in Punjab, they can tilt the electoral balance in several seats in Punjab. The perception is that Dera followers — who supported the Congress in 2004 — will do so again, to the detriment of the Akali Dal, which suffered a massive setback in the last Assembly election in 2007 when Dera followers joined the Congress bandwagon.