04-10-2009, 07:43 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Buta Singh gives Cong the jitters</b>
pioneer.com
Lokpal Sethi | Jaipur
The Rajasthan Congress leadership, which has set a target of winning all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the State, is in a fix due to the growing resentment among the Sikh community members. Adding to the partyâs woes is former Union Minister and senior Congress leader <b>Buta Singh, who is threatening to contest the Lok Sabha election as an independent if the party denies him a ticket</b>.
The two districts â Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh â adjacent to Punjab have nearly 20 per cent Sikh-Punjabi population. Sikh organisations here have been protesting for the past two days against the CBI clean chit to Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar. The Sri Ganganagar Lok Sabha constituency is a reserved seat for SCs. <b>The BJP has fielded Nihal Chand Meghwal, who has won the last two Lok Sabha elections from here.</b>
In 1985, when militancy was at its peak in Punjab, Buta Singh moved to Rajasthan and contested the Lok Sabha election from Jalore, a SC (reserved) constituency close to Gujarat. Since then, he has won the seat four times. In the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, he contested as an independent after being denied a ticket and went on to become a Minister in the Vajpayee Government. After delimitation, Jalore has become a general seat.
Singh was eyeing the Sri Ganganagar seat, primarily because the area has a sizeable number of Sikh and Punjabi voters.<b> His candidature was supported by Baba Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh, the controversial head of Dera Sacha Sauda</b>, who belongs to this area. Buta Singh was confident of getting a ticket from here. However, the party preferred Bharat Meghwal who had contested this Lok Sabha seat in the last election.
Following the controversy over Baba Gurmit Ram Rahim Singhâs dressing like the 10th Guru of Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, the previous BJP Government banned his entry in the State in general and in Sri Ganganagar in particular. After this ban, violent clashes between Dera followers and Sikh activists of organisations close to the Akali Dal took place in Sri Ganganagar.
<b>The Dera chief is considered close to the Congress </b>and, in the last Assembly election in Punjab, he had asked his followers to vote for the partyâs candidates. After the change of guard in December last year, the <b>Gehlot Government lifted the ban on Babaâs entry. </b>He visited Sri Ganganagar and addressed several gatherings soon after. <b>Congress leaders are sure his appeal would help the party candidates</b>.
<b>But with the Sikhs already outraged over the Tytler issue, Dera followers have made a hasty retreat to avoid the wrath of Sikhs in this area.</b>Â <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> As the Congress has already fielded Sandhya Chaudhary from the Jalore constituency, Buta Singh is considering contesting as an independent from this seat.
His supporters feel that even though Jalore has now become a general seat, the constituency still has a sizeable number of Dalit voters.
In the last Lok Sabha election, <b>Buta Singh was defeated in Jalore by Shila Bangaru, wife of former Bharatiya Janata Party president Bangaru Laxman</b>. But this time, the BJP has fielded a new candidate, Devji Patel, keeping in view the presence of large number Gujaratis in the district.
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pioneer.com
Lokpal Sethi | Jaipur
The Rajasthan Congress leadership, which has set a target of winning all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the State, is in a fix due to the growing resentment among the Sikh community members. Adding to the partyâs woes is former Union Minister and senior Congress leader <b>Buta Singh, who is threatening to contest the Lok Sabha election as an independent if the party denies him a ticket</b>.
The two districts â Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh â adjacent to Punjab have nearly 20 per cent Sikh-Punjabi population. Sikh organisations here have been protesting for the past two days against the CBI clean chit to Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar. The Sri Ganganagar Lok Sabha constituency is a reserved seat for SCs. <b>The BJP has fielded Nihal Chand Meghwal, who has won the last two Lok Sabha elections from here.</b>
In 1985, when militancy was at its peak in Punjab, Buta Singh moved to Rajasthan and contested the Lok Sabha election from Jalore, a SC (reserved) constituency close to Gujarat. Since then, he has won the seat four times. In the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, he contested as an independent after being denied a ticket and went on to become a Minister in the Vajpayee Government. After delimitation, Jalore has become a general seat.
Singh was eyeing the Sri Ganganagar seat, primarily because the area has a sizeable number of Sikh and Punjabi voters.<b> His candidature was supported by Baba Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh, the controversial head of Dera Sacha Sauda</b>, who belongs to this area. Buta Singh was confident of getting a ticket from here. However, the party preferred Bharat Meghwal who had contested this Lok Sabha seat in the last election.
Following the controversy over Baba Gurmit Ram Rahim Singhâs dressing like the 10th Guru of Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, the previous BJP Government banned his entry in the State in general and in Sri Ganganagar in particular. After this ban, violent clashes between Dera followers and Sikh activists of organisations close to the Akali Dal took place in Sri Ganganagar.
<b>The Dera chief is considered close to the Congress </b>and, in the last Assembly election in Punjab, he had asked his followers to vote for the partyâs candidates. After the change of guard in December last year, the <b>Gehlot Government lifted the ban on Babaâs entry. </b>He visited Sri Ganganagar and addressed several gatherings soon after. <b>Congress leaders are sure his appeal would help the party candidates</b>.
<b>But with the Sikhs already outraged over the Tytler issue, Dera followers have made a hasty retreat to avoid the wrath of Sikhs in this area.</b>Â <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> As the Congress has already fielded Sandhya Chaudhary from the Jalore constituency, Buta Singh is considering contesting as an independent from this seat. His supporters feel that even though Jalore has now become a general seat, the constituency still has a sizeable number of Dalit voters.
In the last Lok Sabha election, <b>Buta Singh was defeated in Jalore by Shila Bangaru, wife of former Bharatiya Janata Party president Bangaru Laxman</b>. But this time, the BJP has fielded a new candidate, Devji Patel, keeping in view the presence of large number Gujaratis in the district.
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