Sangrur Election: A quest for good governance or radicalism?

The electorate of Punjab has made its choice of leadership very clear with the defeat of the candidates of the ruling party and the other mainstream political parties of Punjab in the Sangrur Lok Sabha byelection, the question still remains as to what exactly they were looking for while voting the radical-minded Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) leader Simranjit Singh Mann to victory.

The radical stance of Simranjit Singh Mann is no mystery for the masses. While he has already been a two-time MP, once from Tarn Taran and the second time for Sangrur, this is the third time that he has been elected to the lower house of the parliament from a Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab, and the second time from Sangrur however he otherwise had lost five assembly polls and one Lok Sabha election in the past.

A proponent of Khalistan, Mann joined the Indian Police Service in 1967. He served as SSP Ferozepur, SSP Faridkot, Deputy Director, Vigilance Bureau, Chandigarh, Commandant of the CISF, Bombay, and in various other capacities. He led several successful crackdowns against Pakistani drug smugglers, but resigned from the Indian Police Service in 1984 in protest of the Operation Blue Star.

Besides the dissatisfaction of the voters against the AAP legislators and the Rajya Sabha candidates, who apparently failed to represent the constituency, and the resultant disillusionment with the ruling party, the murder of popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, who had allegedly pledged his support to Mann, was probably what swung the voters in his favour.IN addition Mann also termed controversial actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu, as a martyr who dead in an accident. Deep Sidhu was an accused in the Republic Day violence in 2021 at lal Quila during the farmer protests.

Mann has always been viewed as an ardent supporter of Khalistan. Although several cases of sedition have been registered against him, he has, so far, not been convicted in any of these. Even as Punjab still ponders over the exact reasons behind Mann’s victory, ‘is radical mindset beginning to grip the electorate that is hungry for change?’ is the question that begs an answer.

If yes, who is responsible for it? The ‘freedom march’ held by the radical outfits in Amritsar ahead of the anniversary of Operation Blue Star, by and large testifies to the same. The question that arises is ‘has the AAP-led government failed to curb crime?’ It is quite apparent that the incumbent Punjab government needs to spruce up its style of working to win back the trust of the voters. But only time will tell whether they are able to do so or not.

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