Rattan Singh's fight for quality health, education and eradication of illegal activities from Shahkot
After losing his father at the age of 4, Rattan Singh Kakkar Kalan completed his education while fighting poverty in his family. When he was 24, he moved to Dubai and started working in the construction industry as a laborer and foreman. After some experience, he started his own construction company in Dubai. At the age of 58, Rattan Singh took voluntary retirement from his company and returned to India. The company is now managed by his son.
AAP Membership: In the year 2014, Rattan Singh saw a couple of AAP volunteers on motorbikes. These volunteers were campaigning for the 2014 parliamentary elections and were easily identifiable by the AAP ribbon on top of their turbans. He inquired about AAP and subsequently took its membership. Since then he is working and volunteering for AAP Punjab unit. He was also the AAP Punjab spokesperson. As a volunteer, he contacted local residents for AAP membership and set up a table booth. People kept joining and the group became bigger day by day. His involvement with AAP was not pleasant to some people from other parties. They started a fight with Rattan and as a result he was jailed for a period of 15 days in Jalandhar.
Candidacy: Rattan Singh is now AAP Punjab candidate for the upcoming by-elections in Shahkot constituency. Shahkot seat became vacant due to the unfortunate death of the elected MLA from Akali Dal. In 2017 Punjab assembly elections, AAP was at third position and lost the seat in a close fight with Akali Dal and Congress. Later, AAP Shahkot candidate Amarjit Singh switched sides and joined Akali Dal. Now with AAP in opposition, Shahkot is going to land in another tight voting situation with the son of passed MLA fighting from Akali Dal and Congress candidate facing illegal mining charges.
The Journey: Political journey of Rattan Singh has been full of challenges. After his 4 years of hard work with AAP, party leadership and volunteers chose him as AAP candidate for Shahkot assembly elections. During previous elections, Rattan noticed the widely popular practice of distribution of money in exchange for votes. Most of the candidates try to buy votes and some of the voters earn money by accepting cash offered by candidates from various parties. Such vote trading habits end up without any developmental work from the elected MLA as they get busy in recovering the money spent during elections.
Shahkot Campaigning: At present, while campaigning in Shahkot constituency, AAP volunteers have heard complaints about the inactivity of previous MLA from voters. On the other hand, AAP volunteers are also receiving positive response from voters because of the good work carried out by other AAP MLAs in Punjab. There was some dissatisfaction among voters due to the backstabbing by Amarjit Singh, but at the same time they are happy that his intentions are now clear to everyone.
There are 236 booths in Shahkot and people are coming forward to work as booth volunteers on the election day. Each booth is ensured to have at-least 2 volunteers. Door-to-door campaigning by 5-6 teams and other AAP MLAs from different constituencies is getting good response from local residents other than some resistance from Akali Dal, Congress members and sarpanchs. In some of the villages, AAP volunteers are not allowed to campaign and forced to leave the area by hired goons. First Akali and now Congress are on the same path of showing power, harassing poor voters and promoting corruption. To counter this, some influential voters from the area are coming in support of AAP and challenging established hooliganism. Dialogue among the voters is slowly changing. Goons can stop AAP volunteers to enter a village for campaigning but voters can’t be stopped from voting.
AAP Membership: In the year 2014, Rattan Singh saw a couple of AAP volunteers on motorbikes. These volunteers were campaigning for the 2014 parliamentary elections and were easily identifiable by the AAP ribbon on top of their turbans. He inquired about AAP and subsequently took its membership. Since then he is working and volunteering for AAP Punjab unit. He was also the AAP Punjab spokesperson. As a volunteer, he contacted local residents for AAP membership and set up a table booth. People kept joining and the group became bigger day by day. His involvement with AAP was not pleasant to some people from other parties. They started a fight with Rattan and as a result he was jailed for a period of 15 days in Jalandhar.
Candidacy: Rattan Singh is now AAP Punjab candidate for the upcoming by-elections in Shahkot constituency. Shahkot seat became vacant due to the unfortunate death of the elected MLA from Akali Dal. In 2017 Punjab assembly elections, AAP was at third position and lost the seat in a close fight with Akali Dal and Congress. Later, AAP Shahkot candidate Amarjit Singh switched sides and joined Akali Dal. Now with AAP in opposition, Shahkot is going to land in another tight voting situation with the son of passed MLA fighting from Akali Dal and Congress candidate facing illegal mining charges.
The Journey: Political journey of Rattan Singh has been full of challenges. After his 4 years of hard work with AAP, party leadership and volunteers chose him as AAP candidate for Shahkot assembly elections. During previous elections, Rattan noticed the widely popular practice of distribution of money in exchange for votes. Most of the candidates try to buy votes and some of the voters earn money by accepting cash offered by candidates from various parties. Such vote trading habits end up without any developmental work from the elected MLA as they get busy in recovering the money spent during elections.
Shahkot Campaigning: At present, while campaigning in Shahkot constituency, AAP volunteers have heard complaints about the inactivity of previous MLA from voters. On the other hand, AAP volunteers are also receiving positive response from voters because of the good work carried out by other AAP MLAs in Punjab. There was some dissatisfaction among voters due to the backstabbing by Amarjit Singh, but at the same time they are happy that his intentions are now clear to everyone.
There are 236 booths in Shahkot and people are coming forward to work as booth volunteers on the election day. Each booth is ensured to have at-least 2 volunteers. Door-to-door campaigning by 5-6 teams and other AAP MLAs from different constituencies is getting good response from local residents other than some resistance from Akali Dal, Congress members and sarpanchs. In some of the villages, AAP volunteers are not allowed to campaign and forced to leave the area by hired goons. First Akali and now Congress are on the same path of showing power, harassing poor voters and promoting corruption. To counter this, some influential voters from the area are coming in support of AAP and challenging established hooliganism. Dialogue among the voters is slowly changing. Goons can stop AAP volunteers to enter a village for campaigning but voters can’t be stopped from voting.
 |
| Rattan Singh campaigning in Shahkot constituency |
Agenda: AAP is fighting this by-election on the issues of education, health, crime, illegal soil mining, safety, illegal drugs etc. Shahkot, which is a 72 km long constituency does not have a single post-secondary college where girls and boys can get their education. It takes 4-6 hours to commute to colleges outside the constituency. Because of this reason, a large population does not attend college and finish their formal education after high school. Long travel to colleges is also not favoured by female students. Establishing colleges in Shahkot constituency will be Rattan Singh's first priority. The constituency also lacks proper hospitals. Because of this many patients die on their way to the hospital. Rattan Singh is also ready to give up his roadside land for free to build a quality hospital. Hooliganism is also an issue where sexual harassment of girls is very common. If elected as a MLA, Rattan Singh also have plans to stop illegal smuggling of soil costing crores of rupees. This illegal mining causes decline in revenue for Shahkot. While continuing building homes for poor people, constructing schools, roads and resolving the clashes between sarpanchs will be in his agenda. He is also determined to work towards reducing electricity rates and generate jobs for new graduates and other jobless people from Shahkot.
Clean politics is possible with clean candidates and clean money. People in India and Indian citizens living abroad are coming together in support of Rattan Singh by donating, participating in calling campaigns and volunteering on the ground. During the calling campaign, USA and Canada volunteers are getting good response from the voters. You can support pro-people governance by connecting with Rattan Singh on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rattansingh.kakarkalan and donating online using https://donate.aamaadmiparty.org/?state=PB&vidhan=4090
Clean politics is possible with clean candidates and clean money. People in India and Indian citizens living abroad are coming together in support of Rattan Singh by donating, participating in calling campaigns and volunteering on the ground. During the calling campaign, USA and Canada volunteers are getting good response from the voters. You can support pro-people governance by connecting with Rattan Singh on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rattansingh.kakarkalan and donating online using https://donate.aamaadmiparty.org/?state=PB&vidhan=4090
You can also contact me via this blog if you would like to participate in calling campaign.
AAP USA chapter organizes a weekly conference call every Sunday at noon 12:00PM EST. More details about the call and the guest can be found at @aapchat (https://twitter.com/aapchat).
AAP USA chapter organizes a weekly conference call every Sunday at noon 12:00PM EST. More details about the call and the guest can be found at @aapchat (https://twitter.com/aapchat).
No comments