CHANDIGARH: The ball is in the Independents' court now, as all major parties competing for power at the Punjab Assembly election, are doing the best in their capacity to woo them. As fear of a hung Assembly spread across the state, party leaders have taken it upon themselves to keep Independents on their side.
Various Independents like Congress rebel Naresh Puri from Sujanpur, Rajdeep Kaur, sister of former gangster Jaswinder Singh Rocky from Fazilka, and Tarlochan Singh Soond, sitting Congress MLA from Banga, who contested as rebel after being denied ticket, are being considered strong by all parties. Ludhiana MLA brothers, Balwinder Singh Bains and Simarjit Singh Bains, who floated their own Lok Insaaf Party and aligned with the Aam Aadmi Party, are also considered strong Independents. AAP had left five seats, four in Ludhiana and one in Amargarh, for them.
Congress sources claimed that Puri and Soond were already associated with Congress and if the need arose, and they won their respective seats, they would go with the party. A SAD leader said, "We are in touch with each one of them. In case we get close to the winning mark and are short of a few seats, we will have plenty of Independents in hand." Both, Congress and SAD feel that the Bains brothers did not join AAP. "They had five members, who contested on their symbol. Even if only two win, we will have two Independents. A deal with them would not be loss making at all," said a Congress leader." Another SAD leader said, "Why should Bains brothers have any issue? They can go to any side. They are not part of AAP."
Simarjit Singh Bains said he considered his alliance with AAP as a "dharma". "We have not been approached by anybody. If they are planning to do so, I want to tell them it would be a waste of their energy and time. I am strongly with AAP. We are winning 100 seats for sure. These two parties would not be in a position to reach close to the winning mark. They can themselves predict how many seats out of the remaining 17 they should get." He added that even if AAP was on the edge, they would go with AAP. "We would not even mind sitting in the opposition. We are with AAP for an ideology and not for any position."
