BABU BOOM

Meet bureaucrats who took the political plunge

- PRATUL SHARMA

Taranjit Singh Sandhu comes from an illustrious lineage. His grandfather Teja Singh Samundri was a prominent figure in the gurdwara reform movement, and his father, Bishan Singh, was an eminent educationist from Amritsar. A Stephanian, Sandhu spent 36 years as a career diplomat, the last four as the US ambassador. He is now contesting from Amritsar on a BJP ticket.

Unlike Arun Jaitley and Hardeep Puri, who lost the 2014 and 2019 polls from Amritsar despite the Modi wave, apparently owing to their “outsider” tag, Sandhu ticks all the boxes. He leverages his family’s past, his Jat Sikh caste and Punjab’s Majha accent to present himself as a son of the soil.

“When I joined the services, I didn’t have any plans to join politics,” said Sandhu. “I was inspired and encouraged to join after my retirement. I have worked 10 years with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. My focus is very clear: the situation in Amritsar is grave. Somebody needs to be a good bridge for the Centre’s schemes to come to Amritsar and attract global investments.”

Sandhu is among many former civil servants cutting their teeth in politics. While he completed his tenure before joining the BJP, many others this season have left the services midway to prepare for this challenging role.

Take, for instance, former IAS officer Parampal Kaur Sidhu, who resigned just days ahead of being given a BJP ticket from Bathinda. She is pitted against sitting MP and Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Former IPS officer K. Annamalai left the services in 2019. This Lok Sabha polls, he contested from Coimbatore on a BJP ticket. As BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit chief, he helped the saffron party gain a foothold in the Dravidian terrain.