Where ‘migrants’ hold the key
By Prabhjot Singh

THE stakes are high for supremacy in the millennium’s last battle of ballot for the lone but prestigious Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat, which has a tradition of returning MPs of the ruling party, be it the Congress, the Janata Party, the Janata Dal or the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In the nine Lok Sabha elections since 1967, when this new parliamentary constituency was carved out following Reorganisation of Punjab on November 1,1966, the Congress has won this seat four times, followed by the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party combine three times with the Bharatiya Lok Dal and the Janata Dal sharing the remaining two terms.

Interestingly, while all four Congress MPs from Chandigarh —AmarnathVidyalankar (1971-1977), Jagan Nath Kaushal (1980-84, 1984-89) and Pawan Kumar Bansal (1991-96) had full tenures in the Lok Sabha, none of non-Congress MPs had a full five-year term in the Lok Sabha. The first MPfrom this Union Territory, Siri Chand Goel, who represented the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, had the longest term as a non-Congress MP from Chandigarh — four years, from 1967 to 1971. And then he was also the only Chandigarh MP who belonged to the Opposition at the time of the constitution of the Lok Sabha.

The Chandigarh Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency has been unique in more than one ways. Since 1967, it has witnessed more than 800 per cent increase in its electorate, from 73,193 in 1967 to 5.83 lakh this time. The increase since the last Lok Sabha elections — 8.3 per cent — has been perhaps the highest in the country.

Though Chandigarh has always been a controversial Union Territory with both Punjab and Haryana staking claims on it, and the local population, supported overwhelmingly by "floating" or "migrant population", wants it to be retained as a Union Territory. The future of Chandigarh continues to be the main local issue this time also as all principal contestants favour its retention as a Union Territory.

Issues pertaining to "migrant" population, its rehabilitation, provision of basic civic amenities and facilities, regularisation of unauthorised constructions and even "encroachments", grant of photo identity cards to footpath vendors, construction of booths for rehri workers and simplification of procedures for new ration cards and registration as voters figure prominently on the local manifestoes of almost all contestants from Chandigarh. The only exception has been the Khalsa conference, whose candidate, Gurnam Singh Sidhu, is opposed to all sops to "migrants" and wants Chandigarh to go to Punjab.

Compared to these issues, the problems of the average middle class residents of the city get sparse mention in the manifestoes. These problems, as and when mentioned, are generalised ones with the exception of allotment of land to cooperative house building societies. Others, like poor condition of roads, poor disposal of garbage, poor water and power supply, inadequate streetlights, inadequate parking lots, etc. are the issues that concern everyone.

The other local issue that has been talked about throughout electioneering pertains to the functioning of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. Residents of the city in general are completely dissatisfied with this civic body after it returned the BJP-SAD alliance to power in December,1996, in the first municipal elections of the city. Since then, the civic body has done precisely little to meet the aspirations and expectations of the people.

The contestants are also opposing levy of any civic taxes, including parking fee.

Another issue, that gradually died down, was exemption to women drivers and pillion riders of two-wheelers from wearing helmets.

In Chandigarh local issues always dominate in the Lok Sabha elections though the electorate normally goes with the national trends while deciding the fate of the candidates.

The only national level leader to visit the city was Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who came here to inaugurate the election campaign of Krishan Lal Sharma, senior vice-president of the party, who replaced two-time winner of Chandigarh seat Satya Pal Jain. Sharma had been two -time winner of the Outer Delhi Lok Sabha seat.

Realising the importance of the "migrant" vote, the local unit of the BJP requisitioned the services of a Bhojpuri folk singer and actor besides inviting a member of the previous Lok Sabha to address special election meetings of migrants from Bihar and UP here. Then came Bollywood star-turned -politician Shatrughan Sinha to campaign for Krishan Lal Sharma. Parkash Singh Badal, too, addressed an election meeting in support of Sharma.

The Congress, like other contestants, preferred to organise corner meetings besides undertaking an extensive door-to-door campaigning. Pawan Bansal visited every nook and corner of the Union Terrritory. Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, a former Chief Minister of Punjab, also came to address some election rallies of Bansal.

The major part of the Congress electioneering was handled by the Dhawans, both Harmohan and his wife, Satinder, who, on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections, joined the Congress to "strengthen secular forces". His joining of the Congress at this stage may prove to be a decisive factor in the ensuing elections and will decide his political future.

The principal contestants — Krishan Lal Sharma and Pawan Kumar Bansal — enjoy a good clean image. Both have been experienced Parliamentarians. Both had been Members of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha before.

The two candidates appeared in a number of "interaction programmes" where they not only made their stands on both national and local issues clear but also answered questions from the audience.

Of other candidates in the fray are Colonel Harsharan Singh of the Rashtriya Raksha Dal who has made a serious attempt to bring defence personnel, both retired and serving, and their families together. He also tried to rope in men and officers from paramilitary forces and police so as to put up a new front with a programme for welfare of the residents in general and defence personnel in particular.

Mata Ram Dhiman of the Bahujan Samaj Party, who is also supported by Gurcharan Singh Tohra’s Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal and Marxist Communist Party of India, is also a no "push-over". He had on his own polled 10,000 votes in 1996 and supported the Congress in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections.

Chandigarh has never been a happy hunting ground for women. This constituency has never returned a woman candidate from here. This time there are two woman contestants — 25-year-old Palac Shri, a former Miss Chandigarh, and a veteran war-horse, Bimla Sapna of the Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar).