SAD names Bibi Jagir Kaur from Khadoor Sahib as first candidate for LS polls

Gurbaxpuri
Tarn Taran, March 12

Former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief and ex-minister Bibi Jagir Kaur is the Shiromani Akali Dal candidate for the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha constituency, considered the citadel of the Akalis. 

The seat was represented by Ranjit Singh Brahmpura in the 16th Lok Sabha. He parted ways with the SAD and constituted the SAD (Taksali), along with MP Rattan Singh Ajnala and Sewa Singh Sekhwan.

SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said candidates for the other seats would be declared shortly. He challenged Brah-mpura to re-contest. Gen JJ Singh (retd) has been fielded by SAD (Taksali). 

Sukhbir termed the PDA, SAD (Taksali) and AAP ‘stooges’ of the Congress whose aim was to divide Opposition votes. Attacking Brahmpura, he told the crowd: “Your MP did not raise a single issue concerning your area or Punjab in Parliament for five years.” 

The Tarn Taran Lok Sabha constituency, as it was called prior to it being renamed, has produced stalwarts such as former CM Partap Singh Kairon and LS Speaker Gurdial Singh Dhillon, both from the Congress. Akali stalwarts Baba Kharak Singh, Udham Singh Nagoke and Mohan Singh Tur also came from this constituency. At the political meeting today, Sukhbir accused Capt Amarinder Singh’s government of “not taking interest in development works” and focusing on filing “false” cases against Akali workers instead.

“Officials working at the government’s behest will be removed from service and put behind bars when the SAD returns to power,” he warned. He pointed out that schemes meant for the poor, such as Atta-Dal, had been stopped and the promise on “completely” waiving farm loans and ‘ghar ghar naukri’ had not been kept.

Former minister Bikramjit Singh Majithia said the government had promised 60 lakh jobs. “This means it was to give one lakh jobs every month. But the only job given so far is that to a grandson of the late Cheif Minister Beant Singh,” he quipped.

ABOUT Candidate

• Bibi Jagir was acquitted by the HC last December in a case of forcible abortion and abduction of daughter Harpreet Kaur, who died under mysterious circumstances in April 2000
• She had to resign as minister in SAD-BJP government in 2012 when a CBI court sentenced her and three others to five years’ imprisonment in the case
• Bibi Jagir has been MLA from Bholath in Kapurthala district and has headed the SGPC twice