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Journalism of Courage
ALL THOSE hours nursing the constituencies of their respective MP husbands have paid off for Amrita Warring and Jatinder Kaur Randhawa. The Congress has picked the two for the coming bypolls to the Gidderbaha and Dera Baba Nanak Assembly seats, respectively, vacated by their husbands on becoming MPs.
While Amrita is the wife of Congress Ludhiana MP and Punjab chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Jatinder’s husband is Congress Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.
Iqbal Singh Ramiana, a former worker of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) who is planning to contest as an Independent from Gidderbaha, said the Congress was a past master at “using workers” but keeping party tickets “within political families”. “It is a double delight – one MP and another MLA candidate (from the same family).”
A Masters in Computer Applications, Amrita, 45, was involved at the micro level all through Warring’s three Assembly election wins, in 2012, 2017 and 2022. Since 2014, she has had a bigger public presence through her NGO Aasra foundation, which organises health camps and supports education of the needy.
In 2019, when Warring faced off against Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal in the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat, Amrita held public rallies on his behalf. While Warring lost by about 20,000 votes, Amrita became a familiar presence and was soon meeting people to address their grievances. In many villages, there was public demand for her to address rallies even when Warring was present.
In the recent Lok Sabha polls, after Warring moved to Ludhiana, there was talk that Amrita may be fielded from Bathinda, but the Congress eventually went with turncoat Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu.
Finally picked for the coming Assembly bypoll, Amrita officially began her campaign Wednesday. Speaking to reporters, she said she has no competition with anyone and that it is “a fight between truth and lies”. “Being a woman, I will always have a soft corner for women voters, and hence my campaign will be more women-oriented as they are the pillars of families.”
Warring had a narrow win in the 2022 Assembly elections from Gidderbaha, defeating the Akali Dal’s Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon by 1,349 votes. Amrita says she is not worried about that, attributing the narrow win to “the AAP wave at the time, when many stalwarts lost”. “This margin was enough.”
Jatinder Kaur has been nursing the seat of husband Randhawa, also a three-time MLA, since September 2021, when he was named Deputy Chief Minister, and is also a regular presence in the constituency now. “She has been a sort of shadow MLA. People would meet her at office on a regular basis in the absence of Randhawa,” a Congress worker told The Indian Express.
While Randhawa won from Dera Baba Nanak in 2002, 2017, and 2022, his father Santokh Singh Randhawa represented the seat earlier and was the Punjab Congress president.
Jatinder, 58, who hails from Abul Khurana village of Muktsar and is a graduate, also belongs to a Congress family, with her father Nachhatar Singh Brar once president of the Muktsar District Congress. Now, the third generation of the Randhawas is preparing for politics, with her son Udaivir part of her campaign.
Jatinder may need all the help she gets. Randhawa won from Dera Baba Nanak in 2022 by a little over 460 votes.
