In Qadian, a small municipal town of Gurdaspur district with a population of over 25,000, a three-storied white mansion is hard to miss. Not because of its domineering façade, but two flags, Congress and BJP – representing two vastly different political ideologies – flying atop that catches the eye. This is the house of a well-known political family: Rajya Sabha MP Partap Bajwa and his younger sibling Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa in the Majha region which seems to split right down the middle ahead of the Punjab polls.
Both the brothers were part of the Congress party till recently when the younger Bajwa defected after being denied a ticket from the family stronghold and Partap chosen instead. A peeved Fateh left the party and was given a ticket by the BJP from the adjoining Batala constituency.
Sons of three-time MLA Satnam Singh Bajwa, Partap and Fateh Jung’s families reside under the same roof. While the senior Bajwa’s family comprises of two children and a wife, Fateh Jung has got three kids and a wife. Though the two families have been living under one roof, there have been strains triggered by political developments.
In the 2012 Assembly polls, Partap’s wife Charanjit Kaur Bajwa was allotted the party ticket despite objections raised by Fateh Jung. Enraged, he left Qadian and drove straight to Sri Hargobindpur to back Congress candidate Balwinder Laddi. In 2017, Fateh Jung successfully contested from Qadian.
With the internal rumblings in Congress at peak a few months back, Partap had publicly declared his intention of contesting the Assembly polls from Batala to make a comeback into state politics. Since Fateh Jung was the sitting legislator from Qadian, the elder Bajwa was foreseeing a resistance if he staked a claim for a ticket from there.
But as infighting in Congress reached its peak, PCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu at a rally at Kahnuwan, part of the Qadian seat, declared Fateh Jung’s candidature. Later Partap declared himself as the nominee from Qadian even as the Congress election committee was yet to take a call. Fateh Jung quit Congress and joined the BJP triggering a crisis in the Bajwa family.
Caught in between are the party workers, who till now were working for the Congress party but now have to work for the BJP as well.
“As a dedicated party worker it is now difficult for us”, said a Congress party insider who till now he had been working for Fateh Jung Bajwa and the Congress in Qadian. in Batala.
Congress workers admit that those based in Qadian would want to continue to work for the party in the constituency but since they have been associated with Fateh Jung for long, many had to accompany him to Batala for the campaign. “By doing so we end up drawing the ire of Partap Bajwa who expects that some workers have been here for years and know to organize door-to-door campaigns and know the people should be around,” lamented a party worker.
“Partap has been in Delhi as the Rajya Sabha member after coming back to Qadian meant he needed trusted people around him, but by that time most were already working with Fateh Jung, so now such workers are getting affected and preferring to work for AAP and stay on in Qadian,” admitted a Congress party worker.
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