Candyman Jakhar follows father's footsteps

Maujgarh/Jalalabad: The youngest son of former Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar is almost an outsider in his constituency, Ferozepur, better known as the land of dominating Rai Sikhs, a scheduled caste.
But Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar is taking on every battle on his chin that starts from menacing statistics that has always favoured Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) since 1998 in this seat.
After all, it is no pushover to convince the Rai Sikh community, which gave a 17,000-plus margin to the sitting SAD MP Sher Singh Gubaya and 50,246-vote victory margin for Punjab deputy CM Sukhbir Badal from Jalalabad, which is part of Ferozepur Lok Sabha constituency, in 2012 assembly polls.
Jakhar is invariably picking up big issues of the border region such as floods in the Sutlej catchment areas, unhealthy kids and unemployment.
Addressing these social concerns, the family-run business of agriculture was started, including making imly candies, roohafza, and harvesting kinnow, with a large number of village women employed at their facilities in Abohar. His father was one of the pioneers of horticulture in Punjab, especially the citrus fruit kinnow.
"I am only looking to follow my father's footsteps. He always focused on farming and empowerment of villagers. Even our professional career growth is similar. He became the leader of opposition after two successful contests and I became after three terms," says the Abohar MLA.
"In his case too, Indira Gandhi had picked him up in 1980 as Ferozepur candidate for Lok Sabha polls, which he won. In my case too, the other Mrs Gandhi picked me up," he added.
Much like his learned father, the vociferous MLA recently stormed into Badal junior's constituency Jalalabad and took potshots at the Badal family and delivered a couplet-laden speech, detailing the rise in crime against women, fund embuzzlements and the perennial issue of drug addiction among youth of border areas.
His butt of criticism was Badal junior's brother-in-law and Punjab revenue minister Bikram Majithia.
"The reason for arrogance and lawlessness in Punjab is Bikram Majithia. He has built an army of young ruffians. Be it the December 2012 incident of an Amritsar girl's molestation by a Youth Akali Dal leader and the shootout or the Tarn Taran case of a girl being beaten up by Punjab cops. They all show callousness of Badal family and their home-run policing and administration," Jakhar told people.
He is overjoyed with the recent comment made by Badal senior when he said that he (Jakhar) is the most popular non-Sikh and non-Jat leader in Punjab.
"It has only made the job a little easier as recently there were reports that Sukhbir did not want to field Gubaya, for he never visited this constituency. Only that the CM told him not to create a situation where they may have another Navjot Sidhu in future here," he laughs.