Congress’ Sadiq eyes ticket from Faridkot constituency

Kulwinder Sandhu

Tribune News Service

Moga, March 18

Punjabi folk singer Mohammad Sadiq, a former MLA, is seeking Congress ticket for Lok Sabha polls from the Faridkot (reserved) seat.

Being a folk singer, he has been a popular figure over five decades. It was due to his popularity that the Congress used to invite him to public rallies to pull crowds. In the initial years, he was paid by the Congress for his professional skills but over the years, his association with the Congress became stronger. He became an active worker of the party.

In 2012, he was rewarded by the Congress with a party ticket to contest the Assembly elections from the Bhadaur (reserved) constituency.

He won the elections by defeating bureaucrat-turned politician Darbara Singh Guru of the SAD.

However, his election was challenged by the defeated candidate on the ground that he was a Muslim and thus didnot belong to a Scheduled Caste. While the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed his election, the Supreme Court, on his appeal, overturned the HC decision, reinstating Sadiq as the MLA from Bhadaur. The SC had noted that “a person can change his religion or faith but not the caste, as the caste is linked to birth”.

Born into a non-practising Muslim family, Sadiq belongs to ‘Doom’ Scheduled Caste. Sadiq argued that he had grown up as a Muslim and not a Sikh and that he had chosen to become Sikh in 2006.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, after the delimitation, he was shifted to the Jaito (reserved) constituency, but he lost to Master Baldev Singh of AAP.