IS IT FAITH ACCOMPLI IN TARN TARAN?

Part of the LS seat won by radical Amritpal in 2024, a bypoll tests the mood anew

- By Anilesh S. Mahajan

IT MAY LOOK LIKE JUST ANOTHER assembly bypoll. But, for Tarn Taran, it's a vote that taps into questions of identity and belonging. Rajwinder Kaur, a young schoolteacher, expresses it well, walking past colourful posters of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Harmeet Singh Sandhu and shaking her head: “We want development—roads, schools, clean water. But we cannot ignore who speaks for our community and faith.”

A few streets away, elderly men in turbans chant slogans invoking Sikh pride, and young volunteers hand out leaflets urging panthic solidarity. The saffron-and-blue flags of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) fluttering nearby may have once invoked those ideals. Now, there's another totem that speaks the narratives. Tarn Taran is part of the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat. The one that shot to spotlight in 2024 when Amritpal Singh, the Khalistani propagandist booked under NSA, won the election from behind bars.

PANTHIC PANOPLY