Delhi Police had booked gangster turned activist Lakhwinder Singh, better known as Lakha Sidhana, after violence broke out at Red Fort during a tractor parade organised by farmer unions on Republic Day last year. He went underground only to resurface a month later to address a rally in Bhatinda teasing Delhi Police. A year later, on bail, he is busy holding babies, touching the feet of the elderly and, posing for selfies as he goes door to door campaigning for votes as a candidate of farm leader Balbir Singh Rajewal’s Samyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM) in the Punjab Assembly Elections.
We are at an anganwadi at Badiala village, where a crowd of a few hundred men, women and children are waiting to hear Mr. Sidhana. But before he comes in Kabbadi commentator Amrik Khosa keeps the stage going. He begins with a morbid story about his own younger brother who died of drug abuse leaving behind two daughters, the youngest of who is just a one-year-old toddler. The crowd listens in silence, the story strikes a chord. Many eyes tear-up in the audience. Badiala, like the other Punjab villages has its own statistics of deaths from drug overdose. Mr. Khosa also talks about his own attempts to find employment abroad touching upon two enduring themes of Punjab elections - drug abuse and unemployment.
Mr. Sidhana, who has been carrying on door-to-door campaigning walks just in time as Mr. Khosa’s story wraps up. Dressed in green sweat pants, jacket and sports shoes he begins his speech without any dramatic flourishes.
