Pb polls: Former bureaucrat in fray against political heavyweights from Amritsar East seat

  • | Tuesday | 15th February, 2022

Amritsar, Feb 15 (PTI) Former IAS officer Jagmohan Singh Raju has jumped into the electoral battlefield from the Amritsar East seat, promising all-around development of the constituency which looks just like a "pind", or village, to him due to its "pathetic condition". BJP candidate Raju, a political greenhorn, is pitted against political heavyweights Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia. Promising all-around development of the Amritsar East seat, he rues about its "pathetic condition". “I could never imagine that an important place of Punjab looks like a "pind" (village)”. “There are broken roads, no system for garbage collection, electricity wires are hanging, unorganized construction, no drinking water. It has been a very sad experience to see all these things,” complains Raju. Raju, born and brought up in Punjab, had joined the IAS at the age of 21 years in 1985 and was allotted the Tamil Nadu cadre. He served in many positions at the Centre and Tamil Nadu state. Before jumping into the poll battle, Raju, who was holding the position of additional chief secretary, took voluntary retirement recently from service after putting in his 37 years. He was to retire in April 2023. "My commitment towards serving Punjab has always been there and the party allowed me to serve people here,” says Raju. Taking on sitting MLA Sidhu, Raju says he has been representing the city for many years and has also been a minister of local bodies. “But despite this, there is so much backwardness and underdevelopment”. “People are saying drugs are openly sold at many places, there is no progress. People are in pain here,” adds Raju who had been awarded the coveted UNESCO- King Sejong award as the Director General National Literacy Mission from 2009 till 2014. PhD in public policy from Tata Institute of Social Sciences and a visiting fellow at Cambridge University in the UK, Raju says there is a "governance failure" here. He also talks about having access to all possible funds from the Centre for the development of the area. Born in 1963 at Faridkot, Raju"s father was also a bureaucrat. His early education had been in Barnala, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Nabba and Patiala. He had been posted in London for three years for promoting the export of agricultural products in Europe.  The Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Jeevanjyot Kaur from the Amritsar East seat. The Amritsar East constituency, which is largely an urban seat, came into existence in 2012 after delimitation. Navjot Singh Sidhu"s wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu became MLA on the BJP ticket in 2012. In 2017, Sidhu contested from Amritsar East and won by a margin of more than 40,000 votes after defeating BJP nominee Rajesh Kumar Honey. Majithia, a three-time MLA, has been representing the Majithia assembly seat since 2007 but this time he is contesting against Sidhu from Amritsar East. PTI CHS VSD RCJ RCJ


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