After several defeats in Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls, finally Simranjit Singh Mann won the Sangrur parliamentary bypoll. The last election he won was in 1999 from Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency itself.
However, unlike his previous poll campaigns, this time it was handled by his 24-year-old grandson Govind Singh Sandhu (daughter’s son). He organised Simranjit Mann’s roadshows, strategised his campaign and used social media effectively to promote his grandfather’s poll agenda.
While speaking to The Indian Express, Govind Sandhu said, “I did plan this election campaign for my grandfather Simranjit Mann. This was my second campaign, the first was for the Amargarh constituency during the 2022 Vidhan Sabha elections. We had put up a strong fight in the state assembly elections, but lost by a small margin of 6,043 votes. But this one (Sangrur bypoll) we won by 5,822 votes. So hard work paid off.”
Govind Sandhu said, “I faced many challenges while organising this campaign as our party workers and leaders have spent their lives fighting oppression and injustice. They have always worked relentlessly for a cause and as a result, the party had never organised itself politically. Also, defeat after defeat in elections had taken a toll on morale of cadres. Above all, people had a wrong perception that our leaders are radical extremists. Keeping all these challenges in mind, the campaign was planned. I focused and capitalised on our advantages – mainly the clean image of our leaders and their uncompromising attitude towards their principles and values. Our core strength was/is the ideology of Mann Saab. So, we planned the content accordingly to reach out to the masses. We made it very clear that we were/are against oppression and not against any religion.”
Govind Sandhu, who passed out from Doon school, said, “Working with people and doing something for the state has always interested me, hence I plunged into this poll campaign without a second thought.”
Talking about his planning, he said, “The Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency consists of nine Vidhan Sabha segments. The election date was announced at short notice, and we had hardly any time to cover such a vast area. We had to cover more than 900 villages, three big cities Sangrur, Barnala and Malerkotla, and many smaller towns. We had planned a strong voter outreach programme, which enabled our party workers to construct a narrative and spread it to every household, both in villages and cities. This narrative was based on various socio-economic issues faced by the people of Punjab which had remained unaddressed by all political outfits over a long period of time. The inexperience and incompetence of the current state regime helped things on the ground, enabling quick mobilisation and expansion of our cadres at grassroots level. This entire work was monitored by a team of experts.”
He added, “Parallelly, we also ran a successful campaign across various social media platforms. WhatsApp and Instagram helped us connect with the youth.” Govind Singh said, “The journey has just begun. SGPC polls and 2024 Lok Sabha elections are my next target.” He said, “Access to information related to local issues of Sangrur helped us stay ahead of our rivals. The campaign focused on the identity of Punjabis – whether the community wants to pick sword or broom. People understood this concept very well. They took a stand and we are proud of Sangrur voters.”