Simranjit Singh Mann Eyes Comeback to Punjab Assembly As He Files Nominations from Two Constituencies

BARNALA, Punjab—Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) President Simranjit Singh Mann today filed nominations paper before the Election Commission office to contest election from Barnala assembly constituency.  Notably, S. Mann has also announced to contest assembly election from Amargarh constituency too.

In 2014, S. Simranjit Singh Mann ended up at fourth place from Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha constituency, with roughly about 14,000 votes.  He has earlier been elected as MP from Punjab twice.  In 1989, he won from Tarn Taran in 1989 with record margin and was again elected for the Parliament in 1999 from Sangrur.

1989 Parliamentary elections from Taran Taran were won by Mann’s candidates with a landslide.  As his candidates won with record margins, while security deposits of many Akali Dal (Badal) and Congress candidates were forfeited.  However, despite winning with a landslide, Mann was not allowed entry in the Parliament because of his insistence on taking the kirpan inside, which is allowed under the Indian constitution.  Following 1989, Mann only managed to win again in 1999.

While Mann has continued to gather much support at his political rallies, his political outfit has no representative in the Parliament.  In 2012, he announced to quit politics citing lack of funds.  However, he later made a comeback in the 2014 elections although failed to gain momentum.  While he earlier announced to contest the 2017 elections from all 117 seats in Punjab, his party has only announced candidates on half of those seats so far.  Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) is however supporting candidates from other parties on several seats.

In Barnala, Simranjit Singh Mann has a chance to actually make a comeback.  He is contesting against Surinderpal Singh Sibia of Akali Dal, Meet Hayer of the Aam Aadmi Party and Kewal Singh Dhillon of Congress.

At the time of filing his nominations from Barnala, Gurdeep Singh Bathinda (General Secretary, United Akali Dal), Jaskaran Singh Kahan Singh Wala (General Secretary, Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar), Prof. Mohinderpal Singh (General Secretary, Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar), Bhai Balwant Singh Gopala (President of Sikh Youth Federation Bhindranwala), Bhai Papalpreet Singh (Chief Organizing Secretary of Youth Akali Dal Amritsar), Bhai Navddep Singh (Youth Akali Dal Amritsar), Sardar Gursharan Singh Sohal (Youth Akali Dal Amritsar) and others were accompanying him on this occasion

Courtesy News from Sikh24.com