battle-royale-in-erstwhile-patiala-princely-state

The princely state of Patiala is famous for its royalty. The legendary Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, known for his iconic epicurean tastes on one side and philanthropic spirit on the other hand, has not only popularised but also immortalised Patiala state. 

The ruling family has continued the political tradition in the post-independent India also, first through Maharaja Yadvinder Singh, a great nationalist, who had a great role supporting Sardar Patel in a great way to unify all the princely states, and continued by his son Capt Amarinder Singh, who rose to become the Chief Minister of Punjab twice.

The tradition continues with the ‘Royal Bahu’, wife of Capt Amarinder trying her luck for the parliament, for the sixth time on a BJP ticket. She is a sitting MP and switched over to the BJP in the month of March, 2024. Her husband Capt Amarinder had joined the BJP about two years ago.

Barring in 2014, when she lost in the first wave of the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab, to Dr Gandhi, she has won all the parliamentary elections since 1999, when she contested for the first time. 2014 was a freak defeat and with a narrow margin of less than twenty thousand votes. 

Preneet Kaur is pitted in a ‘not so easy political battle’, although it may not be a tough one either, this time against the Congress, the AAP and the SAD. Having been around exactly for 25 years and represented the royal city for 20 years, she knows the constituency inside out, like in the proverbial way, back of her palm.

Her mild and affable manners coupled with easy acceptability are likely to help her over her rivals. Since in most of the constituencies in Punjab, the ideology is likely to take the backseat and it is the personality of the candidate that will count, Preneet Kaur stands ahead of her rivals. 

The Congress has fielded Dr Dharamvir Gandhi against her. There has been a lot of resentment from the Congress leaders and workers against fielding an outsider like him. Patiala is full of senior, veteran and powerful Congress leaders including Laal Singh, Brahm Mohindra, Hardayal Kambhoj and Madan Lal Thekedar, just to name a few.

Preneet Kaur has had a good equation with most of these leaders. Even Mohindra, who otherwise used to be a perennial dissident, had got close to Capt Amarinder during his last term. The two are still believed to enjoy a good relationship. It is not that these leaders can straightway transfer their votes to Preenet Kaur, the perception created initially that they did not approve of Gandhi is definitely going to be in advantage of Preneet Kaur. 

Besides Gandhi, her two other challengers include Dr Balbir Singh from the Aam Aadmi Party and Narinder Sharma from the Shiromani Akali Dal. If going by the assembly election results, then it could be a walkover for the AAP candidate. But, the situation is not the same. It is quite contrary to what it was in 2022. Despite there being all the AAP MLAs in all the nine assembly segments falling in the Patiala parliamentary constituency, it is going to be a herculean task in the parliament for the AAP. 

The Shiromani Akali Dal is already at the nadir of its political fortunes. While it has been trying to establish a ‘panthic’ identity, it has fielded a Hindu candidate, Narinder Sharma from here. Sharma has represented Dera Bassi assembly segment, falling in the Patiala parliamentary constituency twice. He has limited pockets of influence in Dera Bassi.

Given the standing and stature of Preneet Kaur, and also the party she represents right now, it is going to be a battle between her against the rest. She has the capability of influencing the cross community voters in her favour. Given the demographic composition, Preneet Kaur may well spring a surprise for everyone. Patiala will be a keenly watched contest; Royal indeed.