In village after village, Punjab’s richest candidate begs to serve

WATCH VIDEO | Rahul Gandhi Declares Captain Amarinder Singh As Congress CM Candidate For Punjab

Back in his Innova, he spent the travelling time between villages on the phone. First he called a religious leader: “Babaji, I touch your feet. I have been insolent.” The humility gives way to sternness sometimes. A rival politician wanted to switch parties but sought to meet Amarinder first. “I am the captain of this place. If he has to meet me he can, otherwise let it be,” Rana Gurjit told an interlocutor.

Besides having represented Kapurthala twice in the assembly, Rana Gurjit has also been the Jalandhar MP — he defeated I K Gujral’s son defeating Naresh Gujral of SAD in 2004 — and lost the 2009 Lok Sabha battle to Khadoor Sahib. Kapurthala assembly seat has been with the family since 2002, with his sister-in-law and wife having represented it. Sardool Singh Dhaliwal, an NRI who has come from Vancouver to be at Rana Gurjit’s side, described his “helpful nature”: “He will go out of his way to help people in need. There is no arrogance of being rich.”

So what are the pluses and minuses of being the richest candidate? “I have shown my real assets. Let Sukhbir Badal, who has shown far less, swap his assets with me. If I have around Rs 170 crore, I also have loans amounting to hundreds of crores standing against my companies,” he said. He mused that the tag of richest candidate “can help me and can harm me too”.

“I have worked hard to build this business. I pay my taxes and serve the people. I can go into losses too unlike some Akali leaders who have their money safe. If sugar prices dip, my business takes a major hit,” he said. In Badshahpur village, he touched upon the issue of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib. Moving on to anti-farmer policies and high electricity bills, he ended the meeting with a cup of tea with villagers.