In Bholath,poll campaign pegged around liquor

On this seat,Congress’ sitting MLA Sukhpal Singh Khiara is in direct contest with SAD nominee and former SGPC president,Bibi Jagir Kaur.

In the three assembly elections since 1997,Bibi Jagir Kaur won the seat twice – in 1997 and 2002. However she lost the seat to Khaira in 2007,ironically when the SAD-BJP combine was voted to power.

The Congress got an ammunition to attack the former SGPC president after Bibi Jagir Kaur and her family members were booked booked for allegedly bribing voters,criminal intimidation and violating prohibitory orders after a cargo vehicle carrying 183 cartons of a whisky were recovered from Talwandi Kooka village of the constituency. The vehicle was found outside a liquor shop and the contractor claimed he was transferring his own stock from one place to another. The excise department officials later said that no pass or permit was found in the vehicle as mandated by law.

In his complaint to police,Khaira had alleged that Bibi’s son-in-law Yuvraj Bhupinder Singh and her relative and liquor contractor Yadwinder Singh,alias Bunty,reached the spot along with others and threatened him.

Khaira had also alleged that the liquor belonged to Kaur and was meant for distribution among voters,something that she has vehemently denied.

The Congress candidate is still telling the people during his poll campaign how “Bibi got exposed” and she was using unfair means to woo the voters. “You cannot buy the voters here with a bottle of whiskey,” Khaira has been telling the former SGPC president.

Kaur,on the other hand in her political meetings,is often heard explaining to the voters that she has been implicated in a false ‘liquor case’ and everything would be clear after an enquiry.

Among other issues,the Congress candidate also talks about the ‘lack of trust’ between Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and son and Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal.

“Why is the party presenting a 84-year-old man (PS Badal) as the CM candidate and not Sukhbir,who is also the SAD president,” Khaira asks before going on to answer his own question.

“It is because the CM knows that know one would opt for the SAD if they went and sought votes in Sukhbir’s name.”

He also narrates an incident about the Badals in his campaign meetings. “In one of the government functions Sukhbir said that Badal Sahib (CM) is like his father. After this the CM stood up and told Sukhbir that ‘I am not like your father,but I am your father’,” Khaira tells the story much to the amusement of the listeners.