Gurdaspur Voters Open to Fresh Leadership, AAP Assesses

AAP candidate Amansher Singh Sherry Kalsi claims voters in Punjab's Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency seek a new leader. Kalsi criticizes BJP MP Sunny Deol for absenteeism and highlights the pro-people policies of the AAP-led state government. He boasts of free electricity, medical treatment, road safety measures, and job creation as reasons for AAP's expected electoral success against candidates from BJP, SAD, and Congress.

Voters of the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab want to give a chance to a new face in the elections, claimed AAP candidate Amansher Singh Sherry Kalsi.

Kalsi, 36, is in the fray from the Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency, which is currently represented by BJP's Sunny Deol.

''Voters of the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat have seen MPs of the BJP-SAD combine and the Congress. They are now fed up with them and they want to give a chance to a new face this time,'' Kalsi told PTI. Kalsi, who is an MLA from the Batala assembly constituency, part of the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat, is banking on the Bhagwant Mann government's, what he called, ''pro-people'' decisions to take on the candidates of his rival political outfits.

The Aam Aadmi Party candidate said that the people of this constituency could not find their MP to address their issues.

Kalsi took a jibe at BJP MP Sunny Deol, saying he remained ''missing'' for five years from the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency.

''For 10 years, the BJP government was at the Centre and Sunny Deol failed to carry out a single work for his constituency,'' said Kalsi.

He said the BJP this time brought former MLA Dinesh Babbu to hide its ''mistake'' of fielding ''outsiders'' from this constituency.

On the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Kalsi said the Sukhbir Singh Badal-led outfit brought its candidate from Anandpur Sahib to field him from here as he was referring to Akali nominee Daljit Singh Cheema.

Kalsi said he was getting immense support from voters of the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat on the back of works carried out by the Mann government.

''Electricity is a big issue. The AAP government in the state is giving free electricity (300 units of free electricity per month). Around 85 per cent of households in the state are getting zero electricity bills. They are saving money,'' said Kalsi.

The Aam Aadmi Clinics are also providing free medical treatment and free medical tests, he said.

The state government has set up a road safety force in the state to streamline traffic movement and keep a check on road accidents, he said.

''Around 43,000 government jobs have been given in the past two years. People are saying that the AAP government is doing the work,'' he said.

''People are ready to support the AAP in the coming elections based on works done by the Mann government,'' claimed Kalsi.

The AAP candidate is contesting against BJP's Babbu, SAD candidate Daljit Cheema and Congress party's Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa from the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat.

After snapping ties with the BJP, the SAD is contesting the Lok Sabha polls on its own for the first time since 1996.

The Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency was considered a Congress bastion before the BJP brought in Bollywood actor Vinod Khanna and fielded him in 1998.

Khanna defeated five-time Congress MP Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder and won again in 1999, 2004 and 2014. Khanna lost the Gurdaspur seat in 2009 to Congress candidate Partap Singh Bajwa.

Following Khanna's death in 2017, Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar won the bypolls. In the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, the BJP brought actor Sunny Deol and won from this seat after defeating Congress candidate Jakhar. Voting for 13 seats in Punjab will be held in the seventh phase of Lok Sabha Elections on June 1.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)