Lok Sabha Election: Pro-Khalistan separatist Amrit Pal Singh and son of Indira Gandhi's assassin win as independents
Amrit Pal defeated his nearest competitor Congress' Kulbuir Singh Zira by a hefty margin of 1,97,120 votes while Khalsa got an edge over AAP's Karamjit Singh Anmol with 70,053 votes.
The pro-Khalistan leader Amrit pal Singh won the seat from the Khadoor Sahib constituency despite being in jail.
Similarly, Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, son of one of the assassins of Indira Gandhi came up victorious from the Faridkot constituency.
Amrit Pal defeated his nearest competitor Congress’ Kulbuir Singh Zira by a hefty margin of 1,97,120 votes while Khalsa got an edge over AAP’s Karamjit Singh Anmol with 70,053 votes. Both of them contested as Independents.
Amrit Pal, a radical sikh preacher and the chief of the ‘Waris Punjab De’ outfit, is currently imprisoned in Assam jail under the National Security Act (NSA) a year ago.
His father Tarsem Singh thanked God and appreciated the ‘sangat’ (community) for their overwhelming support. “It was the ‘sangat’ which fought this battle,” he told PTI.
Amrit Pal, who modelled himself after the deceased Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, credited everyone from youth to women and elderly people, he said everyone contributed to this election. He was arrested in Moga’s Rode village on April 23 last year following a month-long manhunt.
Amrit Pal father had previously mentioned that his son didn’t want to contest in the elections but his mind was changed by the influence of ‘sangat’.
His youth supporters in the Khadoor Sahib parliamentary constituency credited him for taking them away from drugs and eventually turning them into “Baptised Sikhs.”
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (Amritsar) head and Khalistan (separate Sikh homeland) sympathiser Simranjit Singh Mann extended his party’s backing to Singh and refrained from nominating any of his candidates from the Khadoor Sahib seat.
Paramjit Kaur Khalra, wife of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who lost the Khadoor Sahib seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha election led Singh’s poll campaign.
However, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal had asked people to evaluate if Singh had been “propped up by the central agencies”.
He appealed to people to determine whether a person who had acquired ‘Sikhi Saroop’ a year earlier was fit to lead them. He also pointed towards the duality of Singh’s earlier statements where he was seen saying that he did not want to enter politics and was only interested in ‘amrit parchar’ and fighting the drug menace.
Seven assembly segments are held by the AAP while one each by the Congress and an Independent.
Khalsa, son of Beant Singh, one of the two assassins of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, won the Faridkot constituency. In a similar response as Amrit Pal Singh he said, “It is the ‘sangat’ of Faridkot which approached me to fight the polls.”
Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, the two bodyguards of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi killed her on October 31, 1984, at her residence.
During the poll campaigning, Khalsa addressed several key issues. He highlighted the 2015 sacrilege incidents, where the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib was desecrated, leading to protests and the deaths of two anti-sacrilege protesters in Faridkot. He also brought attention to the plight of ‘Bandi Singhs’ (Sikh prisoners who have completed their jail terms), the drug menace, river water disputes, and farmers’ demands for a legal guarantee of minimum support prices
Khalsa had previously led a few unsuccessful election campaigns it was not the first time he fought elections.
He had previously lost the Bhatinda seat on SAD ticked in the 2004 Lok Sabha election. He had also unsuccessfully contested the 2007 Punjab assembly polls from Bhadaur seat in Barnala. Khalsa also lost in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Fatehgarh Sahib seat on a BSP ticket.
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