Ticket war pits kith against kin in Punjab

The fratricidal war that Punjab is so known for, is on for grabbing assembly tickets. Within the political families, blood was thicker for the closer kin.

Former CM Amarinder Singh and his wife Praneet Kaur, minister of state for external affairs, batted for their son Raninder Singh to get him the assembly ticket ignoring the claim of Malvinder Singh, Amarinder’s sibling.

Malvinder claimed that after having helped Praneet twice in her Lok Sabha campaign, he was assured of a berth in the assembly within the family. He joined the Akali Dal last week.

In Gurdaspur, Congress MP Partap Bajwa had all along been building up his brother Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa for seat. He helped him contest from Sri Hargobindpur in the 2007 election.

After Partap got elected for the Lok Sabha, it seemed to be a tacit understanding between the brothers that Partap’s seat, Quadian in Gurdaspur district, would go to him. Instead, Partap got a ticket for his wife.

In Kartarpur constituency Congress nominee Chaudhary Jagjit Singh,80,  turned down his son’s claim,  to get a ticket.

In Sunam, Rajinder Deepa, son-in-law of former MLA Bhagwan Das Arora, was ignored in favour of Arora’s son Aman Arora for the second time, perpetuating the family feud in the family.

Navjot Singh Sidhu, BJP MP in Amritsar, did not blink to get ticket for his wife Navjot as much as much as Jalandhar MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee managed a seat for his wife Suman in Jalandhar.