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Aditi Tandon & Ruchika M Khanna
New Delhi/Chandigarh, Dec 21
Davinder Singh Ghubaya, the son of Akali MP Sher Singh Ghubaya, joined the Congress here today.
Ghubaya is the sitting MP from Ferozepur. His son is an IIT-Roorkee graduate.
Punjab Pradesh Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh, welcoming Davinder Ghubaya and his uncle Munsha Ghubaya into the Congress, indicated that Davinder may be fielded as a candidate in the upcoming Punjab elections. His nomination is expected to have an impact on three seats — Fazilka, Ferozepur Rural and Jalalabad — where Rai Sikhs have a sizeable presence.
The SAD leadership's talks with Ghubaya had failed last week. The latter had spurned the party's offer to field his son from Malout. Now that the Akali MP's son has joined the Congress, the Jalalabad constituency, represented and nurtured by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, looks vulnerable.
Alarmed, SAD's spin doctors today hastened to appoint Sampooran Singh, another Rai Sikh leader, as vice-chairman of the Rai Sikh Welfare Board, to create a division in the community. The Rai Sikh community, which has 60,000 votes (of a total of 1.66 lakh votes), tends to vote en masse. As many as 30 members of the community hold high positions in various boards and corporations.
The SAD has rushed 20 senior leaders to Jalalabad. The constituency has been divided into 20 zones with each of these leaders heading a zone. They will be reporting to the Deputy Chief Minister. As AAP MP Bhagwant Mann too is in the fray, Jalalabad will be no cakewalk for Sukhbir, say sources.