Alliance tweak: SAD man joins BSP, made incharge of Urmar assembly seat

Jalandhar: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) working committee member Lakhwinder Singh Lakhi on Monday joined alliance partner Bahujan Samaj Party and latter instantly announced him constituency in-charge from Urmar, from where Punjab Congress’s new working president Sangat Singh Gilzian is the MLA.
Lakhi is also from the MLA’s village, Gilzian. It was already being felt within BSP and political circles that the party does not have strong presence in Urmar whereas Akali Dal, despite losing the seat in the last three assembly elections, has considerable presence.
It is learnt that Lakhi, who also remained member of political affairs committee of SAD, party’s top decision-making body, and a member of Right to Service Commission during the previous SAD-BJP regime, has been taken into BSP after consultation with SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal. Sources in SAD-BSP said there was possibility that a few more SAD leaders would join BSP, especially in seats where the latter is weak.
BSP state president Jasbir Singh Garhi and state party affairs in-charge Randhir Singh Beniwal welcomed him to the party fold here on Monday and immediately announced him the constituency in-charge, which means he is perspective candidate from the constituency. Lakhi comes from a traditional Akali family. For around three decades, he has been active in the party. “My father was a member of Shiromani Akali Dal and I also got active in the party in 1992, first in Youth Akali Dal where I remained general secretary and vice president, and later in the main party,” Lakhi told TOI on Monday. He also remained chairman of Tanda market committee and a member of Hoshiarpur zila parishad.
Like the Congress MLA, Lakhi comes from Lubana community, which has strong presence in the constituency. Apart from having agriculture land and working as an arhatiya (commission agent), he also owns a multiplex in Tanda. He was an aspirant for the SAD ticket from the constituency, but the seat had gone to BSP quota in the sharing between Akali Dal and BSP. In SAD and BSP circles, there was a whispering for last some days that he would join BSP and was likely to be next candidate.
He had joined Manpreet Badal-led People’s Party of Punjab in 2011, but soon re-joined SAD.