Pathankot: Ahead of Punjab assembly elections, the electoral scenario in the state has truly started to heat up. While candidates are out on the prowl, distributing promises and asserting their claim to the throne will intensity, the same cannot be said for the Gurdaspur constituency, bordering Pakistan.
People in the constituency, either way in the margins of development, now look for their elected representative, none other than BJP MP and noted actor Sunny Deol.
In conversation with ETV Bharat, three candidates from three different political sides elicited various responses, when asked about Deol's absence from the run-up to the assembly elections.
Shiromani Akali Dal-BSP candidate Rakesh Kumar Majra said that Deol let people in the seat down after his emphatic win in the previous elections.
"Sunny Deol was made the winner by the people with high hopes but after winning he did not appear in his Lok Sabha constituency", Majra said.
Aam Aadmi Party candidate Lalchand Kataruchak, on the other hand, questioned the actor-MP's political credibility, asking whether the latter was at all keen on development of the area.
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" After (his) victory, he left Gurdaspur. What are the signs of development to be expected from an MP who has not been here for three years?", Kataruchak questioned.
Meanwhile, BJP candidate from Bhoja constituency Seema Kumari attempted to explain Deol's absence from the area, saying the actor could not reach out to the people due to COVID 19 pandemic.
"Whatever work he was supposed to do for the welfare of the people of his constituency is being being done", the BJP candidate said, adding that Sunny Deol would soon reach the constituency.
Deol, since his election victory in 2019, has visited Gurdaspur two or three times. For the first time since his victory, he appeared in the area on September 5, 2019. The second time was during November 7, 2019, when the MP donated two high-tech ambulances to Gurdaspur and Batal Civil Hospitals and finally, for the third time on January 28, 2020, when he arrived in Gurdaspur to hold a review meeting with the authorities.
