After Dimpy’s exit, SAD intensifies hunt for Gidderbaha face

The leadership of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is jittery as the party is hunting for a new face for the forthcoming bypoll for the Gidderbaha assembly segment after party head Sukhbir Singh Badal’s man Friday Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon joined the ruling AAP on Wednesday.
On August 26, Sukhbir had urged Dhillon to reconsider his request to rejoin the SAD in the next 10 days and contest the forthcoming bypoll as an Akali candidate for the third consecutive term. Ignoring the appeal, Dhillon joined the ruling party of Punjab two days later along with scores of his supporters in the presence of chief minister Bhagwant Mann.
Party members familiar with the development said the cadre wants Sukhbir to contest the bypoll whose date is yet to be announced but the leadership is buying time before taking any decision.
Political watchers said Dhillon, who was groomed politically by Sukhbir, was running the show of Akalis almost single-handedly in Gidderbaha for almost a decade. A section of party supporters opine that the party may field Sukhbir loyalist and SAD’s Muktsar district president Kanwarjit Singh Rozy Barkandi.
On Thursday, Barkandi, a former legislator from Muktsar, denied that he was in the race for the Gidderbaha byelection. “Several party activities met Sukhbir at his farmhouse on Monday after Dimpy announced his resignation. The key cadre from Gidderbaha categorically demanded that only Sukhbir should contest,” said Barkandi.
Sukhbir, who won assembly and Lok Sabha polls, never contested from Gidderbaha, which falls in his home district of Muktsar. A close aide of the SAD president said Sukhbir is likely to decide on a candidate next week. “It has been conveyed by the party chief that his appeal made to Dhillon on August 26 to consider Sukhbir’s appeal to rejoin the party in the next 10 days still stands. Responding to the demand of the party workers early this week that Sukhbir himself should contest, the party head had assured that a final decision would be based on the cadre’s demand next week,” said the aide of Sukhbir.
Gidderbaha has a political significance for the SAD as the predominantly rural segment remained a stronghold of the Badal family for over four decades. Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal won the seat five times since the bifurcation of Punjab in 1966 and then his nephew Manpreet Badal retained it as the Akali leader on four occasions.
But the Akali leadership lost control over Gidderbaha after Congress’ Amarinder Singh Raja Warring breached the SAD bastion in 2012 and won the next two elections too. The Gidderbaha seat fell vacant after Warring quit as an MLA after being elected from the Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat.
Gidderbaha has 52 gram panchayats and the SAD has roped in key party leaders from 27 assembly segments falling under the Lok Sabha constituencies of Bathinda, Faridkot and Ferozepur for campaigning in Gidderbaha.
Barkandi, head of the Muktsar unit of the SAD, said each assembly halqa in-charge has been allotted two villages of Gidderbaha for groundwork. “Teams of our committed leadership have already started working in the constituency. The segment has a strong base of Akali workers and we are confident of their support,” said Barkandi.