Manpreet Singh Badal
Credit: PTI Photo
Gidderbaha, Punjab: Twelve-year after losing his stronghold, BJP candidate Manpreet Singh Badal has returned to Gidderbaha to seek a re-election and showcase it as a "model" assembly segment and wrest the seat once represented by his uncle.
The former state finance minister has been visiting villages in the constituency and is invoking the name of five-time chief minister late Parkash Singh Badal.
The 62-year-old has as his rivals AAP's nominee Hardeeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon and Congress candidate Amrita Warring, who is the wife of Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring. The Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) has fielded Sukhraj Singh.
The Gidderbaha seat fell vacant after Raja Warring, who was a Congress MLA, was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Ludhiana seat in the 2024 parliamentary elections.
The seat in Muktsar district was once considered a stronghold of the Akalis, with Parkash Singh Badal representing it for five consecutive terms — 1969, 1972, 1977, 1980 and 1985.
Manpreet began his political journey from Gidderbaha in 1995 on a Shiromani Akali Dal ticket and went on to win the seat in 1995, 1997, 2002 and 2007.
After parting ways with the SAD, Manpreet unsuccessfully contested from Gidderbaha in 2012 on a ticket of People's Party of Punjab, a party he floated, but lost to Warring.
He then shifted from Gidderbaha seat to Bathinda Urban assembly segment, which he won in 2017 on a Congress ticket. He lost it again in 2022, and switched sides in 2023 by joining the BJP.
Raja Warring won the Gidderbaha seat in 2012, 2017 and 2022.
"In the next two years, we want to develop Gidderbaha as a model assembly segment to showcase to the rest of 116 assembly constituencies that this is what the BJP model can look like. I want to showcase to the people of Punjab that this is what Gidderbaha can achieve. This should be a model for the rest of Punjab to emulate," Manpreet said.
The politician seeks inclusion of the constituency under the AMRUT-2 scheme, plans to lay down water pipes for irrigation, and set up 20,000 solar-powered tubewells.
"My first priority will be to get Gidderbaha declared as a smart city under the AMRUT-2 programme and the government of India has to select a certain number of cities in India so let Gidderbaha be one of them.
"Henceforth, money for sewage cleaning, drinking water, roads, parks and street lighting that substantial funding will come from the government of India. I have already spoken to my leadership," Manpreet told PTI.
With the Command Area Development Authority, a sum of Rs 300-400 crore can be allocated to Gidderbaha for laying of water pipes for irrigation as a pilot project, he said.
"The government of India gives a subsidy on solar tubewells. I will get a solar project for Gidderbaha for around 20,000 solar-powered tubewells," he said, and also promised housing for the rural poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
Asked about his uncle and former Punjab CM, Manpreet said people told him he reminded them of the Akali Dal patriarch.
"I remind people of Badal saab what kind of leader he was. There were certain qualities which were inherent in him which only we can emulate," he said.
On the people's reaction to his return to the constituency, Manpreet said, "the response has been emotional. When people see me, they start crying." The BJP leader claimed things hadn't moved an inch in the last 15 years since he left the constituency. "Because to get things done, one needs some amount of enthusiasm and experience," he said, taking a dig at Warring.
He said during his stint as an MLA and finance minister, tubewell connections were given to those who shifted from cotton to paddy in the constituency as the cotton crop had seen successive failures.
"The second biggest achievement was that certain parts of Gidderbaha were waterlogged and we were able to clear it," he said.
"There was a catastrophe of cancer, with incidents rife in certain parts of Malwa, and Gidderbaha was one of them. Water had arsenic, lead and uranium. On an emergency basis, we installed the reverse osmosis system in Gidderbaha which became the first constituency in Punjab where every village was covered under filtered water," he claimed.
The bypolls to the four assembly seats – Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal and Barnala – will take place on November 20 and counting of votes will be held on November 23.