Punjab: Preneet Kaur fights anti-incumbency as Congress banks on 'pro poor' nominee

Patiala: "Maharani got elected and never turned back to even look at us this time," says 67-year-old Roshan, who runs a catering business from Patiala's famous Adalat Bazar market. Other shopkeepers join him in speaking about overflowing sewers and the general state of Patiala to point out that Preneet Kaur had "abandoned" the constituency.

Three-term MP, Preneet Kaur, is facing an obvious anti-incumbency in Patiala, her husband and former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh's stronghold. Preneet also joined the BJP after Captain Amarinder jumped the ship. But this doesn't seem to have gone down well with the voters who propounded their own conspiracy theories in the streets of Patiala. "We hear that the BJP had something on Captain and that is why he joined. Why else would anyone be BJP's candidate in Punjab?" says Gurmail Singh, a government school teacher.

Seventy-nine-year-old Preneet Kaur is campaigning extensively across Patiala. To ensure that people now don't confuse her with the Congress, a party her family has been associated with since Rajiv Gandhi's time, a BJP worker stands beside her on the dais holding a cutout of BJP's lotus symbol.But she is having it tough this time. Congress is out to avenge Captain's desertion. Patiala has been Congress' stronghold -- since 1952, Congress has won 11 of the 17 parliamentary elections in Patiala. But that is also primarily because of Captain's legacy -- he is the grandson of the Maharaja of Patiala and has had a close relation with the constituents. In the run-up to the voting day, Captain has not ventured out to campaign for his wife which, some say, is due to health reasons.


Congress, on the other hand, has fully supported its Patiala candidate, cardiologist Dharamvira Gandhi, who is known for his social service and free treatment to the poor in Patiala. The top brass of the party -- president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and sister Priyanka -- have all campaigned in Patiala.

Punjab state unit chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, who is himself fighting an election in Ludhiana, has spared time to campaign for Gandhi. People remember him very fondly. "What can you say about a man who spends two hours daily treating poor patients for free. He is such a genial soul," says Parminder Kaur, a senior citizen who moved from Ludhiana to Patiala in 1965 and is now a social worker.

The rivalry between Gandhi and Kaur is old. In 2009, Kaur had won this seat in a bipolar contest defeating the Shiromani Akali Dal candidate by 97,389 votes. However, in 2014, Gandhi was fielded by AAP and he defeated Kaur by a margin of 20,942 votes. However, Gandhi quit the AAP and floated his own outfit.

In the 2019 parliamentary election, fighting on a Congress ticket, Kaur wrested the seat from Gandhi, who finished third behind the Shiromani Akali Dal candidate. Kaur's victory margin was 1.63 lakh. While Dharamvira Gandhi has switched over to Congress, his election agent from the 2014 parliamentary election -- Balbir Singh -- is now AAP's candidate.

Congress has worked very hard to quell all rebellion within the party against Gandhi.

Farmers' issue reverberates in the constituency. In February, farmers started marching towards Delhi to push for an MSP guarantee legislation and were stopped at the Punjab-Haryana border near Patiala. Congress has sensed the anger against BJP over farmers' demands and Rahul Gandhi announced a farm loan waiver while campaigning in Patiala.

Patiala parliamentary constituency comprises nine assembly segments -- Nabha (SC), Patiala Rural, Dera Bassi, Rajpura, Ghanaur, Sanour, Patiala, Samana and Shutrana (SC). All nine were won by AAP in the 2022 assembly elections. Even then, voters of Patiala have drawn a distinction between assembly and parliamentary elections.