Jalalabad, January 13, 2016 : Now all eyes will be on Jalalabad – the constituency being represented by Sukhbir Singh Badal from where he along with his wife Harsimrat Kumar Badal as covering candidate has filed the nominations for Assembly elections scheduled for voting on February 4.
Sukhbir has successfully contested two elections from Jalalabad constituency in 2009 by-election and 2012.
With the filing of nominations by Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy CM and SAD President, to contest for the third time, the election campaign will hot up in this segment and become interesting as the Congress party is looking for a strong candidate to field against Sukhbir Badal.
Aam Aadmi Party has already fielded Bhagwant Singh Mann as its candidate from Jalalabad and he has already organized a show of strength.
Congress party is yet to announce its candidate from Jalalabad and the main claimant for the ticket are local Congress leaders former Minister Hans Raj Jossa, Punjab Youth Congress General Secreary Jagdeep Kamboj Goldy and Block Congress Committee President Raj Baksh Kamboj. But even on the second day, there is no mention of any candidate from Jalalabad and Congress High Command is looking for a big gun to give a tough fight to Sukhbir Singh Badal – who is said to be overconfident of winning the seat for the third time.
Sources said, the idea behind fielding of strong candidate by Congress, may be some celebrity from outside even, is to confine Sukhbir Singh Badal to Jalalabad only. With these arrangements, the factionalism within the Congress party would come to an end and concentrate to oust Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Added here, there was a great resentment among the people of the area when the convoy of Sukhbir Badal was attacked with stone throwing damaging four vehicles and injuring four senior Akali leaders, just two days before the announcement of election dates.
AAP is taking this seat seriously for the reason that Badal is at loggerheads with Mann, the number one ‘enemy’ of SAD. We expect a tough competition this time due to AAP and Congress concentrating on the constituency, said the local citizens.