Punjab's Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal is expected to have a smooth sailing in the assembly polls from Jalalabad constituency, where he is up against a political greenhorn of Congress, but the question is can he better his own record margin of win set three years ago?
Sukhbir is relying mainly on the development works in the constituency bordering Pakistan and the promises he is making to voters to transform this predominantly agrarian area into another urban hub like Chandigarh while his challengers are hoping that community allegiance would lead to an upset.
Badal's main challenger is Congress' candidate Mukhtiar Singh who belongs to Rai Sikh community. But the Deputy Chief Minister's task might have been made a little easier by the presence of two Congress rebel contestants who are depending on en bloc votes from their respective communities.
Sukhbir had won from Jalalabad by a record margin of over 80,000 votes during the by-elections held in 2009.
In the by-poll, Sukhbir had defeated Hans Raj Jossan of Congress. However, Jossan, who had been a minister during the previous Congress rule, is this time contesting as an independent candidate. Jossan had won the 1992 and 2002 assembly elections from this seat.
Not only Jossan has revolted against the party's decision to field a new face, another rebel Congress leader Gurbir Singh Sandhu, who was DCC President, is also in the fray making things more difficult for Mukhtiar Singh.
Mukhtiar is banking mainly on the support of his own community who have sizeable chunk of around 55,000 votes in this segment.
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