SURJEET SINGH is a farmer from Jodha Bhaini village of Fazilka’s Jalalabad constituency close to the Pakistan border. As voting day approaches, Surjeet is clear that he will vote for jobs.
“Ours is the last village on our side. While we need upgradation of basic infrastructure like roads, sanitation, water supply, but I don’t believe in focusing on these…getting jobs for our children is a larger issue…Lots of work has been done in villages like irrigation facilities in border areas, RO installation, road construction in the past 10 years. But now we need employment..it is a very big issue. We need jobs. Rozgar milna zaroori hai…colleges don’t have job oriented courses, teachers are not paid well in colleges..so many issues are interconnected,” said Surjeet Singh.
He added: “When we tell anyone that we live in a border district and near Pakistan border, one thing which we hear is that we are from a backward area. We don’t want to get ourselves tagged with this name anymore…we need jobs, as everyone can’t send their children to foreign countries.”
The constituency of 154 villages has around 2.11 voters and is represented by Congress’s Raminder Singh Awla, who won the bypoll in 2019 after SAD chief Sukhbir Badal vacated the seat he had won in 2017 Assembly polls. Locals this time speak of Sukhbir as a strong candidate since he has chance of becoming the state’s CM.
Kuljeet Singh Brar, from Ghuriana village, said, “During 2017 elections sacrilege was a major issue as Guru Granth Sahib is supreme for all.. we can’t forget it , one can imagine that victory margin of SAD chief Sukhbir Badal (who is once again contesting from here) had reduced to 18,500 votes, while margin was 50,246 votes in 2012 Assembly elections…if he wins and his party forms government, he can be the CM of the state. So, people do keep that in mind.”
“Goldy Kamboj, the candidate of AAP, is also trying to make his impact but, he came from Congress. So, that tag is with him. He is doing good. Congress candidate is Mohan Singh Phalianwala is an old-timer but not a heavy weight,” said Sandeep Kumar, a private employee from Jalalabad.
But even amid a sense that the seat will once again go to Sukhbir Badal, who has already represented it thrice, people express an apprehension that he might ditch the constituency if his party doesn’t get majority as he is already a Lok Sabha MP from Ferozepur.
“SAD does not have a big face like him, because of which he keeps contesting different polls . So, we can expect another bypoll…. He should find a back up plan for himself and the constituency,” said Karnail Singh, a Jalalabad resident.
Sukhbir first contested from Jalalabad in 2009 bypoll and won by 80,662 votes. SAD-BJP government was in power at that time and Sukhbir became the deputy CM. In 2012, however, his victory margin was 50,246 votes. Again in 2017, he contested and won but by a margin of 18, 500.
In 2017, AAP’s Bhagwant Mann was fielded against him and Congress’s Ravneet Singh Bittu was in the fight too. Unsatisfied with the victory margin, he would often say in his speech to voters, “Why did you poll over 50,000 votes in favour of that comedian (Bhagwant Mann)..I changed the skyline of this constituency.” In 2019, he had won Ferozepur Lok Sabha polls and hence had resigned from Punjab assembly due to which bypoll had happened. After this election, another bypoll is also likely to happen, say people of the area.
This time, Sukhbir has only made a few visits to his constituency so far. The last he came was on February 12 and in his absence, Satinderjeet Singh Manta, is taking care of the poll campaign.