Will Dera Factor Help BJP in Punjab? Here’s a Ground Report From 4 Key Seats
BJP is openly playing the Dera card but its impact needs to be seen based on seat-level dynamics.
“Premi nahi bateyenge, lekin unke vote bohat hain,” says Tinku Madan a resident of Balluana, a large village in Fazilka district in the south west corner of Punjab.
“Premi” here refers to the followers of Dera Sacha Sauda, whose head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been convicted for rape of an erstwhile Dera Sadhvi and for the murder of Sirsa-based journalist Ramchandra Chhatrapati.
He has recently been granted 21-day furlough by the BJP government in Haryana, a move that many see as the party’s attempt to win Dera Sacha Sauda votes ahead of the Assembly elections in Punjab.
The Haryana BJP’s links with the Dera Sacha Sauda are well known and more details on this can be found in this story by The Quint.
Dera Sacha Sauda (commonly known as Dera Sirsa as it was established in Sirsa) claims to have over 40 lakh followers in Punjab and a great deal of influence in the politically crucial Malwa region of Punjab.
In this report, we will look at whether the Haryana government’s furlough to Ram Rahim could have any impact in four seats in South West Punjab: Balluana, Fazilka and Abohar in Fazilka district and Firozpur City seat in Ferozpur district.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of seats where Sirsa Dera has influence but they are among the most important seats where the Dera’s influence and BJP’s own support put together could alter political equations.
However, there are many local complexities that need to be taken into account.
BALLUANA
Named after the biggest village in the area, Balluana is a predominantly rural seat falling near Punjab’s border with Rajasthan.
Many families in Balluana are followers of Dera Sirsa. Outside some of their homes, they have put up stickers of the Dera Sirsa symbol — symbols of Sikhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam all inside the number 1. A couple of homes also had ‘Insan’ written on them.
We spoke to a few Dera Sirsa supporters in Balluana. While they expressed happiness at the furlough being granted to Gurmeet Ram Rahim, they said that it should not be seen from the point of view of politics.
“We are obviously delighted. But don’t bring politics into this. This is a great moment for us,” said one such supporter, who didn’t want to talk about this further.
