Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Gurdaspur, January 5
SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal’s recent visits to five Assembly seats of Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency has not only quelled dissent, but also stimulated his party’s “sleeper cells”.
In local parlance, “sleeper cells” refer to workers who have steadfastly stood by the party in the past, but for some reason are disinclined to join campaigning this time.
This category includes leaders like ex-Cabinet minister Sucha Singh Langah who till yet was not visible in Dera Baba Nanak where he wields considerable influence.
In the 2017 polls, he had polled 63,353 votes against 66,294 polled by winner Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.
“For our rivals, the number of votes garnered by Langah may be a piece of statistics. For us, it represents his vote-catching ability. He may have been marginalised following the sleaze video which went viral in the run-up to the 2017 Gurdaspur bypoll. Sukhbir has pulled him to his side by promising a “decent position” to his son, Sonu Langah. The senior Langah will now openly support the party candidate Ravi Karan Kahlon,” said a senior leader.
Sucha Singh Chhottepur, the party’s nominee from Batala, has also been asked to activate his workers in Dera Baba Nanak. Chhotepur’s former seat of Dhariwal was dissolved in 2012 and a large number of his villages were shifted to Dera.
Sukhbir visits Gurdaspur to quell dissidence
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