Its a battle between a king and a pawn. A fight between a political royal family and a poor one. This in a nutshell is the battle cry of the Congress Malkit Singh aka Hira who is contesting against Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in the Jalalabad Assembly constituency. With nearly 1.6 lakh registered voters,the constituency is dominated by the Rai-Sikhs who number nearly 68,000 votes in over 170 villages and their support could be decisive in the polls. Malkit,a first-timer,has adopted a two-pronged strategy. While wooing the Rai Sikh community,he is also targeting Sukhbir for his absence from the constituency for the last three years. Sukhbir had won the Jalalabad seat with a margin of 85,000 votes in the 2009 Assembly bypolls. The deputy CM,however,has not been present in his constituency,preferring to campaign for Akali candidates across the state. The Rai-Sikh community is reportedly not very happy with Sukhbir. The Akalis took us for a ride in the last elections. The promises never matured. The hospital in Jalalabad is in shambles with stray dogs even in the emergency wards. There is no infrastructure development in the villages. In our village,in the name of a hospital,there is a health centre,run by a compounder, said Baldev Singh,former sarpanch of Dhanian Jatttan Wali village. During the last polls,since Sukhbir Badal had the power,on his orders electricity meters,poles were installed overnight,without any paperwork. People were made to believe that they would be given free power; but nothing of that sort happened. Within a few days of his winning the election,the electricity department officials came and removed all those electricity meters and uprooted the poles and took them away. The people,who availed the electricity from those meters,were slapped hefty electricity bills. Despite a hue and cry raised by us; Sukhbir never bothered to pay even a single visit to our village,said Pritam Singh,an active member of Rai Sikh community,now campaigning for Malkit Singh,in Arniwala village. Another Rai Sikh community member and a local level Congress politician,Ram Singh Kamboj,said: The Rai Sikh community had always played a vital role in Jalalabad constituency. Malkit Singh,on the other hand,is stressing on the Rs 1 per kg wheat and sugar for Rs 3 per kg that the party has promised in it manifesto. I was the choice of Rahul Gandhi,who showed faith in me,a member of an ordinary family,who has no political backing. I will do my best and leave no stone unturned,said Singh,who runs a small transport business in Jalalabad.
