In run-up to Punjab elections, sons become poster boys for candidates across party lines

Enter the industrial town of Batala, home to the late poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi, and you will be greeted by big hoardings of Congress candidate Ashwani Sekhri and his arch opponent, BJP’s Fateh Jung Bajwa. One feature common to both is the picture of their progenies on the posters. While Sekhri’s posters have photos of his son Abhinav, Bajwa is joined by his two sons, Kanwar Pratap and Arjun Pratap.
In the neighbouring constituency of Fatehgarh Churian, Akali Dal candidate Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal has also ensured that his son Kanwar Sandeep Singh Sunny, who’s returned from Canada to campaign for his father, gets pride of place on his hoardings.

It’s the same with his rival, senior Congress minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, who has ensured a prominent place for his son, Ravi Nandan Bajwa, on his hoardings. Earlier, in December, there was speculation that Ravi, chairman of Gurdaspur zila parishad, may contest as an Independent from Batala where his father has done a lot of work. But the Congress high command reportedly persuaded him to sit back. Tript is now making sure that Ravi remains in the public gaze through his posters.

Punjab Home Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa with his son Uday Vir Singh.

At Dera Baba Nanak, home to the Kartarpur Sahib corridor, State Home Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa ensures you cast a look at his only son, Uday Vir Singh Randhawa, who is still studying but occupies a place on the posters. Uday Vir Singh Randhawa, an undergraduate, is the youngest among these poster boys campaigning for their fathers.

Many of these sons have taken baby steps into politics. Pritam Kotbhai, sitting Congress MLA and candidate from Bhucho Mandi near Bathinda, who was booked in a chit fund scam in 2018, reportedly wanted to pass on the mantle to his son, Rupinder Pal Singh, a young advocate and Youth Congress member. Rupinder may not have got the ticket but his father has put him on his hoardings.

Jaspreet Singh Dhillon, sarpanch of Arlibhan village near Dera Baba Nanak, says it’s a new trend in the state. “They are clearly promoting their sons as their political successors, it was never done so openly in the past,” he says.

Bhupinder Pal Singh, member, Subordinate Services Selection Board, who also noticed this phenomenon in the border belt of Majha for the first time, says it’s just the candidate’s way of saying “there are so many of us to serve you.’’

The hoarding of Akali Dal candidate from Fatehgarh Churian has a big picture of his son Sandeep Singh Sunny.

Others like Jaspal Sidhu, a journalist at Bhucho Mandi, call it the “AAP effect”. “AAP has more following amongst the youth. This is a clever way to attract youngsters among the voters, but it could backfire as it gives the impression of perpetuating family rule,” he says.

Politics runs in the family for the Bajwas of Batala. Satnam Singh Bajwa, father of Fateh Jung Bajwa — who switched from Congress to BJP after his elder brother Rajya Sabha MP Partap Bajwa was given the family seat of Qadian — was killed by terrorists in 1987.

“I have been campaigning since I was 10 years old,” says Fateh’s younger son Arjun Partap, whose social media handles profile him as a supermodel with a business administration degree from Lancaster University (UK). He’s also been an actor and director in Bollywood. He took his first step into politics when he fought and won the zila parishad polls from Sri Hargobindpur, at the age of 25, in 2018.

Batala Congress candidate Ashwani Sekhri with his son Abhinav.

More recently, Arjun was in the eye of the storm when former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh appointed him an inspector in the Punjab Police in June last year. But the appointment never came through due to strident opposition from within.

Bajwa’s elder son Kanwar Partap, a postgraduate in Economics from the London School of Economics, is general secretary of the Youth Congress, and was appointed state chief of the All India Jat Mahasabha’s youth wing last year. Kanwar, who was first spotted as a campaigner when he used actor Sunny Deol’s dialogues to campaign against him in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Gurdaspur, is now seeking votes for his father.

Compared to them, Ashwani Sekhri’s son Abhinav, an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin, is a relative newcomer in the field. A serial entrepreneur based out of Delhi, Abhinav is now crisscrossing the grimy Batala on foot to get votes for his father, a three-time MLA who has fought seven Assembly polls.
A leader who did not want to wade into this “unnecessary controversy” said the posters have been put up by his party workers.

A market committee member at Goniara in Bhucho Mandi, who decided not to campaign for Kotbhai, rubbishes this explanation. “Party workers also have political ambitions. By openly flaunting their sons on the hoardings, these leaders are sending a message that the top spot would always be reserved for the family. This is very disheartening, how can you say we are living in a free India.”