<div><font color="Navy">Candidates flock to Dera Sacha Sauda
SP Sharma & Archit Watts
Tribune News Service
Bathinda/Muktsar, January 16
With a few days left for polling in the state, more than 100 candidates belonging to the SAD, the Congress, the Sanjha Morcha and others visited Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa last evening to seek blessings of its controversial chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh whose sect has considerable following in Punjab, particularly in the Malwa belt.
Irrespective of party affiliations, the dera chief met the candidates on a single platform and did not oblige them with a separate audience.
The candidates had to cool their heels till the dera chief decided to address them together at around 7.30 pm.
He advised the candidates to be good human beings and strive to end female foeticide and drug abuse.
Keeping in mind the backlash that the dera followers faced in Malwa after the 2007 assembly elections when the SAD was virtually wiped out in the belt, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh did not meet the candidates individually.
The Left parties have always shunned Dera politics, but former CPI legislator Hardev Arshi, who is contesting from Mansa, chose to visit the dera this time. Among the SAD candidates who sought the dera chief
More...
SP Sharma & Archit Watts
Tribune News Service
Bathinda/Muktsar, January 16
With a few days left for polling in the state, more than 100 candidates belonging to the SAD, the Congress, the Sanjha Morcha and others visited Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa last evening to seek blessings of its controversial chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh whose sect has considerable following in Punjab, particularly in the Malwa belt.
Irrespective of party affiliations, the dera chief met the candidates on a single platform and did not oblige them with a separate audience.
The candidates had to cool their heels till the dera chief decided to address them together at around 7.30 pm.
He advised the candidates to be good human beings and strive to end female foeticide and drug abuse.
Keeping in mind the backlash that the dera followers faced in Malwa after the 2007 assembly elections when the SAD was virtually wiped out in the belt, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh did not meet the candidates individually.
The Left parties have always shunned Dera politics, but former CPI legislator Hardev Arshi, who is contesting from Mansa, chose to visit the dera this time. Among the SAD candidates who sought the dera chief
More...