In Gurdaspur, SAD gets head start over others

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, October 31

With the SAD already taking the lead in naming its candidates, the party has taken a decent head start, a development which is bound to hold the party in good stead when it goes to the Assembly polls.

With the Congress, BJP and AAP yet to announce its nominees, the SAD has already fielded youth leader Ravi Karan Kahlon from Dera Baba Nanak, old warhorse Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal from Fatehgarh Churian and Gurbachan Singh Babbehali from Gurdaspur.

Ravi Kahlon’s entourage hits the road before day break. “It is my hard work that is going to count,” he maintains. As he stops at a village, he urges people to cast their vote. “Bad MLAs get elected when good people do not vote,” he quipped.

Ravi is grappling with two variables — ex-minister Sucha Singh Langah and Sucha Singh Chottepur. Both have their pockets of influence in Dera. Langah’s decades-old differences with Ravi’s father are well known. Sources say the leadership has placated him by offering a political post to his son if the party is voted to power.

As for Chottepur, he is keeping his cards close to the chest. Batala MLA Lodhinangal has been shifted to Fatehgarh Churian. He, too, starts his campaign in the wee hours and covers 8-12 villages daily.

In Gurdaspur, Gurbachan Singh Babbehali has already visited all 115-odd villages of his seat. “I can sense an anti-incumbency factor building up against the Congress legislator. In 2017, I lost because people wanted a change. This time, the same people want a change,” he quipped.