Will Akali Dal field party hopper Jagmeet Brar in Lok Sabha polls?
By Harish Monga
Ferozepur , April 20, 2019 :
In politics, anything is possible at any moment. It remains to be seen whether the old-timer Akalis will accept Jagmeet Singh Brar who has joined their party ahead of Lok Sabha polls 2019.
Jagmeet Brar, born on May 23, 1958, in Bam village of Sri Muktsar Sahib district, is a lawyer, writer and poet and politician who has also been given the title of ‘Awaz-e-Punjab’ for raising of issues of Punjab at the national level.
After serving the Congress party for a period spanning over three and half decades, he quitted it on January 5, 2015 due to his differences with its central leadership.
Taking a dig at his change of political loyalties, his detractors say Brar has now become Awaz-e-Badal. The president of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Sukhbir Badal hailed him Brar as a good orator and said that he would campaign for the party during the elections.
That Brar is quite interested in contesting Lok Sabha polls became known when Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder created political ripples by releasing to the media Brar’s messages to him after the latter joined the Akali ranks. His message to Amarinder read like this: “Keep me by your side, I will fix Badal’s in Punjab, I offer myself to contest provided you recommend my case. I will win this seat (Bathinda), Please give me a chance to meet you, I want to unconditionally join the party”.
Brar had been given number of chances to stick to the party discipline before he parted way with it. After rejection of his requests to return to the party fold, he joined the SAD to save his political future.
As the Congress candidate, Brar had contested five times against Badals, including SAD supremo and former CM Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Badal. He had once defeated Sukhbir Badal by a thin margin of 5,000 votes.
Now the question being asked is whether the old-timers having a long association with the SAD will accept Jagmeet Brar amid rumours that he has been inducted into the party to field him from Ferozepur Lok Sabha seat.
Even after indicating that Sukhbir himself may contest from Frozepur , SAD still seems in dilemma over the selection of a winnable candidate from Ferozepur seat.Apointment of Jagmeet Brar as senior vice president of SAD , is being considered as an indication that he unlikely to be fielded in Lok Sabha polls.
As the nominations will start from April 22, the speculation over Brar’s candidature will sure end. In the meantime, this speculation has generated a lot of curiosity in political circles in this border area seat. Not only within the SAD, the question of his candidature has also become a subject of intense interest for the Akalis' main rival Congress.
Brar is not new to the Ferozepur electorate as he has already tried his luck from this seat. He was defeated from here not because of strong opposition but due to lack of support from his former party. This time Brar would like to square up his accounts with his rivals in case he is given a chance by the SAD to contest from Ferozepur.
The Congress and SAD are yet to announce their candidates as both parties are looking for winnable candidates. The Congress has not won this seat since 1985 whereas the Akalis have been emerging victorious since 1998.
Over to Akali Dal...!!!