Sukhmeet Bhasin
Mansa, January 16
In the Mansa Assembly constituency, contestants from three major parties — Congress, SAD and AAP — are trying their luck in the elections for the first time. Singer Sidhu Moosewala is contesting on the Congress ticket, scrap businessman Prem Arora on the SAD ticket and Dr Vijay Singla on the AAP ticket.
All of them are promising to perform better than the sitting MLAs and claiming that earlier, candidates promised many things and disappeared after elections.
Moosewala’s mother Charan Kaur is the sarpanch of Musa village in Mansa district, while both Prem Arora and Dr Vijay Singla are from non-political families.
Congress leader Manoj Bala, who contested from Mansa in the last polls, have been adjusted and given ticket from the Maur Assembly segment and Sidhu Moosewala has been fielded from Mansa.
Sidhu Moosewala (Cong):His songs are quite popular among youth. The singer belongs to a political family. His mother Charan Kaur is the sarpanch of Musa village in Mansa district.
Dr Vijay Singla (AAP):He is a dentist by profession. He was also a contender for the Aam Aadmi Party ticket in the 2017 Assembly elections, but was ignored.
Prem Arora (SAD):He is a scrap dealer-turned-politician. In the 2014 General Election, it was alleged Sukhbir Singh Badal had harassed the Arora family for political funding.
In the past, Moosewala remained in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, especially for glorifying the gun culture and violence in his songs. Moosewala, who writes his own lyrics, also glorifies caste and the rawness of village life, which has made him popular among village boys who take pride in their identity.
Jagdeep Singh Nakai who had contested the last elections on the SAD ticket from here, refused to contest this time. Subsequently, the party fielded Prem Arora. However, Nakai joined the BJP recently and is likely to contest from the Maur.
Arora, a scrap dealer-turned-politician, was in the news during the 2014 General Election when Manpreet Badal and Bhagwant Mann had alleged that Sukhbir Badal was harassing the Arora family for political funding and the former had even moved to Haryana.
Later, after the elections, Arora joined the SAD and was elected the urban president of the party in Mansa, which many saw as a damage-control move by the party to shun allegations of harassment.
Dr Vijay Singla is a dentist. He was also a contender for the AAP ticket in the last polls, but was ignored then.
3 parties bet on new entrants in Mansa
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