Bassi Pathana: Punjab CM Charanjit Channi common factor between brother, legislator

Tribune News Service

Rajmeet Singh

Bassi Pathana, February 11

With just over a week left for polling, an intriguing political battle is unfolding in the Bassi Pathana Assembly segment. The din symbolic with campaigning is missing here as the winds of change seem to be sweeping through. This reserved Assembly segment is perhaps the only constituency in the state where two opponents are seeking votes in the name of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.

Riding on the general perception of change, AAP candidate Rupinder Singh Happy is giving a tough fight to Congress candidate and sitting MLA Gurpreet Singh GP. The presence of Sankuyt Samaj Morcha nominee Dr Amandeep Kaur Dolewal and Punjab Lok Congress candidate Dr Deepak Jyoti has made the contest multi-cornered, with each having their pockets of influence.

Reaching out

Electing me means you have elected the CM. Like Chamkaur Sahib, Bassi Pathana will get special focus. It will be like CM’s constituency. —Dr Manohar Singh

This apart, an interesting battle is being witnessed between MLA Gurpreet GP and Independent candidate Dr Manohar Singh. While the MLA, in a bid to tide over anti-incumbency, is listing works done by the Channi-led government in 111 days, the latter, being CM’s younger brother, too is wooing voters using the Channi card, besides citing the service rendered by him as a government doctor in the area.

“Electing me means you have elected the CM. Like Chamkaur Sahib, Bassi Pathana will get special focus. It will be like CM’s constituency,” Dr Manohar Singh tells a gathering at Nandpur Kalaur village. Urging voters to repeat history by ensuring his victory, he says Channi entered politics in 2007 as an Independent and went on to become the CM.

He has hired a five-member troupe of Delhi-based artistes to reach out to voters. Dressed in black and green robes, the team led by Jatinder Gupta goes from one village to another singing jingles such as “Jhoot bole jhadu (AAP) wale, Congress walon se dario, mein to television (Dr Manohar’s poll symbol) par button dabaun, tum dekhte rahio.”

Amid the undercurrent for change, Sukhdev Singh, who runs a dhaba on the Chunni-Bassi Pathana road, admits people have made up their mind for change. A few kilometres away, Roopinder Singh, a resident of Kheri Beer Singh village, is upset with the government for not regularising his job as a pharmacist.

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