Punjab polls: Teenagers test political waters for their fathers

They are a bunch of teenagers. Ineligible to vote, yet they are indefatigably involved in the Punjab elections, for their fathers in the fray.

Arjun Badal, the 17-year-old son of Manpreet Badal, who is heading the Punjab People’s Party, has been slogging it out for his father in the Gidderbaha and Maur Assembly constituencies where his father is contesting.

Arjun, who studies in the US, has taken a prolonged winter holiday and holds the fort for his father, who has been campaigning for his party candidates all over the state. Manpreet, nephew of chief minister Parkash singh Badal, broke off from his parent party, the Akali Dal, last year, to launch his political outfit.

Arjun harps elaborately on the differences that his father and the chief minister had and seeks to strike an emotive note by saying repeatedly that his father had in fact been wronged.

Mankirat Kotli, a class VIII student in Chandigarh, has been working hard as well to assist his father Gurkirat Singh Kotli, in the Khanna Assembly constituency. Being the great grandson of former chief minister Beant Singh, Kotli realises the onerous burden of the political mantle he carries. Yet he carries it with aplomb and shares the burden of canvassing with his father with equal responsibility. He would not just mobilise the youth for his father, but would deliver supportive addresses as well to chip in with his father relentlessly.

“I am gaining experience,” he chuckles, adding, “I know my responsibility as much as my father does.”

In Jagraon, Tarunjit, son of Akali Dal candidate SR Kaler, has also taken leave from his college and joined hands with his father to manage his campaign. Kaler, a former bureaucrat, may not like to groom his son as a politician, but Tarunjit says “I would not mind entering politics early in my age, something that my father has done so late in his life.”

Arashdip Singh, son of Gurpreet Kaur Gagowal, contesting on the Congress ticket from Mansa, Atul Khurana, son of Raj Khurana,who is BJP nominee in Rajpura, are among other teenagers who have veritably taken up the political mantle of their fathers lending a youthful touch to the campaign.