Punjab: Congress didn’t ask me to withdraw son’s candidature, says Rana Gurjeet

“You should not believe me. Just go around the constituency and speak to the people about the excesses they have faced due to fake FIRs being filed against them. In some cases, you will be moved to tears at the injustice done to the people just by one police inspector who was the blue-eyed boy of Cheema,” says Rana Gurjeet. Cheema has denied the allegations and attributed Inder Pratap’s candidature in Sultanpur Lodhi to the unbridled ambition of Rana Gurjeet’s family.

In his public meetings in Sultanpur Lodhi, Rana Gurjeet does not fail to raise the issue of police excesses faced by the people and promises them better days ahead. “When you go to the market and buy some item you often get one free with it. Here if you vote for my son, you get the father free,” he says at one gathering. “I have a good reputation in not only my constituency but several other constituencies around too. Just a couple of days back I had gone to campaign for Ramandeep Sikki in Khadoor Sahib and then attended Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s programme in Shahkot Assembly for the sitting MLA Hardev Singh Laddi there,” he says.

Rana Gurjeet had to resign as the power and irrigation minister in 2018 after he came under a cloud over the sand mine auction in which it was alleged that he tried to bid under the names of his employees, one of them his cook, and using front companies. It was also found that he had taken a loan of several crores from a man who was himself under investigation for a scam.

“He was not my cook,” says Rana dismissively. “He is my manager and his family has been associated with us for 90 years. Jealous people like Sukhpal Khaira have been spreading canards about me, but look at Khaira’s own fate. He faces a stiff jail term for all the frauds he did and for involvement in the drugs case,” he says.

Travelling from one village to another, Rana Gurjeet points towards the extensive sugar beet farming being done in Sultanpur Lodhi. “We have more than 2,000 acres under cultivation here and we purchase the produce for our sugar mills. Overall, we have 16,000 acres under cultivation in the entire state. This is an alternative to the wheat crop and pays a lot more to the farmers,” he says, adding that his son has already seen more business opportunities in the area because of the extensive vegetable farming being done. “He has a project in mind whereby a cold chain will be established to ensure better purchase and marketing of vegetables grown here,” he says.

When asked about his verbal jousting with PPCC president Navjot Singh Sidhu, Rana says there was no need for Sidhu to have made personal remarks against him at a public meeting in support of Navtej Cheema. “He said Raje, Rane rehn nahi dene (the Rajas and Ranas will no longer stay). This was uncalled for. I had never said anything to him or against him. I had to retaliate. I am not someone who takes things lying down.”

Interestingly, accompanying Rana Gurjeet in his campaign is former AAP candidate Sukhwant Singh Padda, who fought against him from Kapurthala in 2017. “We are good friends. So what if he contested against me? Someone had to,” he says before heading off to another public meeting.