David vs Goliath Battle in Bhadaur as Mobile Repair Shop Owner Takes On CM

“The entire national media is searching for me in villages here, asking who is the person against whom the Congress had to field its chief minister,” says 35-year-old Labh Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party in a surprised tone in a village in Bhadaur when asked how he plans to take on CM Charanjit Singh Channi here.

Bhadaur seems like a classic David vs Goliath battle. Labh Singh is a mobile repair shop owner who lives in a two-room house in a village and is fighting his first election. He says he moves around in Bhadaur on a motorcycle or a public bus for campaigning in the villages and tells CNN-News18 that Channi is a “dikhawe ke aam aadmi (a sham common man) as his son has a car worth Rs 2 crore”.

The Congress in a surprise move announced Channi as the candidate from here, his second seat in the February 20 Punjab assembly election. The constituency is held by AAP and what makes the contest even more interesting is that the Congress has won this reserved seat only once in the last 50 years, in 2012. AAP won it in 2017.

“Channi is scared to lose from Chamkaur Sahib so he has come to Bhadaur. He does not know the history of this seat. In 1952, Baba Arjan Singh, a freedom fighter, became the first MLA from Bhadaur by going around on a cycle, winning against King Nirpal Singh. In Bhadaur, only people connected to the ground won. In 2012, the chief secretary in the Badal government lost from here. People here don’t see how big or rich a candidate is — they see who is the one like them. I am like their son and I live in a small village here, people know who the aam aadmi is,” Labh Singh says to CNN-News18 in an Interview.

In Bhadaur town where a new poll office of the CM was unveiled, CNN-News18 met Congress Faridkot MP Muhammad Sadiq, the only candidate from the party to ever win from the area assembly seat, in 2012. “CM Channi will win by a bigger margin than me. There are many leaders who have fought from two seats. Channi is the CM of the entire Punjab and he belongs to every seat, so he is not new to Bhadaur,” Sadiq said. Some locals tend to agree. “Now that the CM has come here, it has become a VIP seat and people will vote to keep it that way,” Sukhipal Singh, a local resident, says.

Congress worker Roop Singh says Congress workers have vowed to send Channi as the next chief minister with a win from Bhadaur.

However, some other locals say Bhadaur is the stronghold of AAP and Channi’s candidature in fact is making people remember the failed promises of the Congress government even more.

Labh Singh is rubbing it in too. “I live in a two-room house and came into politics. Is Channi an aam aadmi after Rs 10 crore was found from his relative’s home? Just by taking a simple shawl, one does not become an aam aadmi. Channi is a dikhawe ke aam aadmi. His son moves around in a Rs 2-crore car. Aam aadmi is someone who can move around here on a motorcycle or even a bus — like me,” he says.

The AAP candidate also says Channi did not develop his seat, Chamkaur Sahib. “Channi claims he did Rs 1,000-crore development in Chamkaur Sahib and now he claims he will develop Bhadaur. I appeal to the media to find the development in Chamkaur Sahib — look at the poor state of schools and hospitals there,” Labh Singh says. “Two months ago, the police of Channi were raining lathis on unemployed youth here, now he is coming here with folded hands.”

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