Chandigarh, May 9
Electoral fate of
former Test cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, former All-India Youth Congress chief
Manish Tewari, Mr Abhay Chautala (younger son of the Haryana Chief Minister), Mr
Naresh Gujral (son of former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral) and young
industrialist and equestrian international Naveen Jindal — all first timers —
will be sealed in electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the final phase of
polling for the 14th Lok Sabha tomorrow.
Nearly four crore voters will exercise
their franchise for 10 seats in Haryana, four in Himachal Pradesh, 13 in Punjab,
seven in Delhi, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one in Chandigarh.
Mr Sidhu
(Bharatiya Janata Party) is pitted against the oldest contestant and five-times
Lok Sabha member, Mr Raghunandan Lal Bhatia, in Amritsar. Another sportsman in
the fray is Mr Jindal, who is contesting on the Congress ticket against Mr Abhay
Chautala. Mr Chautala, too, is into sports, not as a sportsman but as an
official. He represents Haryana’s ruling Indian National Lok Dal.
His elder
brother, who was a member of the 13th Lok Sabha, is also in the fray. Also in
the fray is former Chief Minister and present Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee
chief Bhajan Lal’s son, Mr Kuldip Bishnoi.
For Mr Tewari, though in active
politics for almost two decades, this is the first foray into electoral
politics. He is facing not-too-youthful chief of the youth wing of the Shiromani
Akali Dal Sharanjit Singh Dhillon in a triangular contest. Another in the
contest is Lok Bhalai Party chief Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, a veteran and former
Union minister.
Mr Naresh Gujral is contesting on the SAD from Jalandhar
against sitting Congress legislator from Kapurthala Rana Gurjit Singh.
Mrs
Pratibha Singh is the Congress candidate for the Mandi seat, from where former
Telecommunication Minister and president of the Himachal Vikas Congress Sukh Ram
had earlier returned to his parent party fold of the Congress.
Though a number
of other new faces, including Ms Karan Brar (Congress — Faridkot), Ms Kaushalya
Bhaur (CPI) and Ms Paramjit Kaur Gulshan (SAD), both from Bathinda, are also in
the run for the Lok Sabha, tomorrow’s polling will decide the political future
of several veterans of Indian politics, including that Union Chemicals and
fertilisers Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Union Minister of State for Home
I.D. Swami and former Union Minister of State for External Affairs Raghunandan
Lal Bhatia, besides former Union Minister of State for Industries Sukhbir Singh
Badal.
Mr Dhindsa is facing sitting Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) MP Simranjit
Singh Mann, besides young Congress legislator from Sangrur Arvind Khanna, in a
triangular contest. Mr Sukhbir Badal is pitted against first timer Karan Brar in
Faridkot.
The Chief Electoral Officers of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and
Chandigarh have appealed to the electors to vote freely and fearlessly tomorrow.
All arrangements for a free and fair poll have been completed.
The polling
stations in all the three states and the Union territory of Chandigarh have been
put under a tight security cordon.
Though all liquor shops, pubs, bars and
ahatas were ordered to be closed at 5 p.m. yesterday, reports of free
distribution of liquor in colonies, villages and even towns were pouring in from
various parts of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.
The Election Commission has
also banned carrying of cordless and mobile phones or wireless sets into polling
stations.
