Located between the rivers Beas and Ravi just 10 km from the international border between India and Pakistan, Gurdaspur has been on the boil every now and then. But the action the parliamentary constituency is witnessing now is extraordinary with lights, cameras and focus of the people on two contestants — one a seasoned politician and another just assigned the role in the great Indian political flick.

A seat, which the Congress considered to be within its reach by re-nominating its sitting MP and state party president Sunil Jakhar until recently, no more remained a piece of cake with BJP turning the terrain tough by fielding ‘Punjab da Puttar’  (son of Punjab) Sunny Deol.

The contest has now become no less than a suspense thriller with even the political observers hesitant to make any guesses.

No doubt, the star-struck electorates of Gurdaspur constituency were turning out in huge numbers to see their Bollywood action hero among themselves, and how many of these would translate into votes for the SAD-BJP combine is a concern of them. But, it is the only seat, out of the total three the saffron party contests in Punjab in alliance with the SAD, where it is confident of a victory.

On the other hand, the Congress is banking on Jakhar’s experience, his political image, connect with the people, and the State Government’s performance to romp home to victory. To top it all! Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh declared Jakhar as the “Punjab’s future CM” to give a further boost to his candidature not only among the electorates but within the party too.

Jakhar is said to be facing problems in taking along various factions in the constituency, specially the legislators and leaders owing allegiance to the Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa, even after the Chief Minister has made it clear that MLAs and Ministers would be held responsible for candidates’ performance.

In his election campaigns, Jakhar has all along been highlighting the works he had done for the constituency in less than a year’s time including getting clearances from the central ministries, increasing crushing capacity of Paniyar and Batala sugar mills, besides working hard to resolve the issue of Pathankot’s six rail crossings on Joginder Nagar narrow gauge track — one of the prime issue for the electorates.

“An MP has to remain among the people, meet them, talk to them...By holding road shows sitting atop a truck, waving at them, and walk away would not do,” said Jakhar while taking a dig at Sunny’s style of electioneering.

A novice, Sunny is learning the ways of politics in a hard way. Wooing the voters with his “dhai kilo ka haath” and “Hindustan zindabad” dialogues from his famous movies, Sunny soon realised that he have to focus on the local people’s issue to win them over.

Besides the local BJP leaders including two former state presidents, Sunny’s campaign was being looked after by a full-fledged team in Delhi. Sources in the BJP maintained that Sunny was asked to focus more on local issues, which the local leaders apprise him about before addressing the people, during his election speeches rather than indulging in dialogue-delivery.

“Sunny Deol is working hard, getting to know the problems in the area, and what the people want. Before addressing any gathering, he asks the local leaders about the problems of that area, and what are the issues there. Now, he has started to talk about developing the area as he felt that the region is deprived of many facilities,” a senior BJP leader said.

Gurdaspur has always been the Congress bastion, winning the seat 11 times out of total 12 elections, including a bypoll, held till 1996. It was only in 1998, when the BJP decided to field Bollywood’s yesteryears’ superstar Vinod Khanna, it broke the Congress’ winning spree.

Khanna scored a hat-trick by winning three consecutive elections in 1998, 1999, and 2004, and his victory campaign was halted by the Congress’ Partap Singh Bajwa, now Rajya Sabha MP, in 2009 elections; which Khanna revenged in 2014 polls by defeating him.

But, the Congress won the seat back in 2017 by-elections necessitated following Khanna's death due to prolonged illness. And this time, the Congress had decided to field an “outsider” Jakhar from Gurdaspur, not relying on Bajwa.

This election has again seen the BJP casting a popular actor for making the elections a hit in a constituency dazzled by the glamour of the tinsel world. Other than Sunny Deol, the BJP was juggling between the names of Vinod Khanna’s widow Kavita Khanna or his actor son Akshey Khanna, besides the Mumbai-based businessman Swaran Salaria too staking his claims for the party ticket.

During 2017 by-poll, the choice was between Kavita Khanna and Salaria, but the businessman, with the backing of Swami Ramdev, managed to get the ticket only to face defeat. This time too, both Kavita Khanna and Salaria were assertively preparing for the contest, and switch into rebel mode after Sunny’s candidature was declared. However, after airing their grievances, they soon come in Sunny’s open support.

Besides fielding a strong candidate, BJP is heavily depending on the SAD to make a mark in rural areas. But, what worries the BJP is the lack of senior leadership in SAD coupled with rebellion and exodus the party is facing in the constituency.

Once considered its stronghold, Gurdaspur constituency has witnessed the departure of four top SAD leaders in the past one year. During SAD-BJP’s second term, three ministers — Sucha Singh Langah, Sewa Singh Sekhwan and Balbir Singh Baath, and Vidhan Sabha Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon, were hailing from this area.

Now, Sekhwan, who represented Qadian, left his parent party to form a splinter group — SAD (Taksali). Gurdaspur district unit president and two-time MLA GS Babbehali is facing charges of criminal conspiracy, former Minister and Akali heavyweight Langah has lost his hold after his controversial video surfaced ahead 2017 by-poll, while Kahlon has limited his appearances owing to age and health problems.

Amidst all this, SAD’s Batala MLA Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal and Majha zone youth president Ravi Karan Kahlon have taken a charge of the party’s campaign in the area.

At the same time, the Congress maintained that SAD has been totally marginalised in the constituency claiming that winning Qadian, Fatehgarh Churian, Gurdaspur and Dera Baba Nanak assembly seats will be a cake walk for the party.

Challenging the two are Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate Peter Masih and Punjab Democratic Alliance joint candidate Lal Chand of Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI) — who have failed to make their presence felt amidst the clash of the titans.

Gurdaspur is expected to be a face-off between Sunny Deol’s star appeal coupled with Modi wave and Jakhar’s clean image coupled with Congress Government’s performance in the state with AAP’s Masih and PDA’s Lal Chand hardly making any impact among the constituents which are mainly awestruck with the presence of a superstar — a persona Jakhar too struggling to match with.

The main question is whether the BJP will once again manage to sweep Gurdaspur off its feet with the star power.