The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Dhillon wins cliffhanger
Except Tewari, all lose deposit
Tribune News Service

Votes

Sharanjit Singh Dhillon 2,62,086

Manish Tewari 2,44,282

Balwant Singh Ramoowalia 1,35,983

Ludhiana, May 13
The SAD-BJP alliance in Punjab got yet another shot in the arm with its nominee Mr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon winning the Ludhiana Parliamentary seat by 17,804 votes. He defeated the Congress nominee, Mr Manish Tewari.

The SAD candidate established a lead in the first round by a narrow margin of 2,761 votes, but maintained the lead in all rounds till the result was declared.

Initially all candidates witnessed anxious moments, but as the counting progressed it was established that the contest was between Mr Dhillon and Mr Tewari with the Lok Bhalai Party Chief, Mr Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, trailing at the third place. All candidates except Mr Tewari have lost their deposit.

Mr Dhillon established a lead of 2,761 votes over Mr Tewari at the start of the counting and this increased to 5,468 votes in the second round, which increased further to 9,737 in the third round. In the fourth round of counting, the margin narrowed down to 7,033 and fell further to 6,398 in the fifth round. In the sixth and seventh round, the margins slid further to 5,714 and 5,339 votes.

It was only in the eighth round of counting that Mr Dhillon established a lead of 11,295 votes. By the end of the ninth round of counting, Mr Tewari was trailing by 14,480. At the end of the counting, the Congress nominee lost to the SAD candidate by 17,804 votes.

Mr Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, who had created a lot of hype, finished a poor third.

Counting was delayed in Ludhiana since re-polling was being held at three polling booths in Sahauli village. While Mr Dhillon was considered to be having an advantage, uncertainty persisted almost until the end of the counting.

At one stage, it appeared that Mr Tiwari would cover the lead and overtake Mr Dhillon. However, these expectations were belied, as he could not establish a substantial lead in the urban constituencies of Ludhiana East, West, North and Rural. Although he managed some lead, it fell short of the lead established by Mr Dhillon in the rural constituencies of Koom Kalan, Kila Raipur, Jagaraon, Dakha and Payal.

The Congress had hoped that Mr Ramoowalia would cut into the votes of the Akali candidate. Although he did manage some votes, these did not make much difference to the final outcome.

Mr Ramoowalia, who had travelled quite extensively in the rural areas and had created lot of hype, could not translate it into votes. Much to the shock and surprise of the Congress candidate, the party could not retain the lead it had established in the last Assembly elections in 2002. Against a lead of about 15,000 in Ludhiana East, the party managed a lead of just over 5,000.

Similar was the case with Ludhiana rural, where the party had won the Assembly elections by 30,000 votes. But this time the Akali candidate had the support of Mr Hira Singh Gabria also, who had secured about 30,000 votes then.

The Akali candidate also managed to establish a lead in the Congress represented Assembly segments of Payal and Dakha, while those represented by the Akali candidates consolidated it further.

Sahauli repoll held under tight security
Naveen S. Garewal
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 13
The polling process was completed in the three booths at Sahauli in the Ludhiana parliamentary constituency of Kila Raipur Assembly segment under tight security today. No untoward incident was reported from the Government Senior Secondary School where over 60 per cent villagers exercised their franchise. Those who polled their votes included a 105-year-old woman Dalip Kaur and octogenarian Tarsem Singh.

Sahauli was the hot favourite destination of all major candidates, who do not want to take any chances with the voters. However, some sympathy wave in favour of the Shiromni Akali Dal (SAD) was palpable, but Mr. Manish Tewari, the Congress candidate spent nearly four hours at Sahauli, which has about 2,400 votes. The Bhaujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate was even more persuasive as he stayed in the area for much longer, cheering up his supporters.

The killing of SAD nominee brought out many people to vote who would not have voted otherwise, these include Ms. Dalip Kaur, who her relatives claimed was 105 years old. “Marjane mainu thake naal he le aaye” (My family brought me here by force), she said in chaste Punjabi adding that it was a tribute to the slain Mr. Jagpal Singh from her village.

Handicapped and on crutches, Tarsem Singh could not remember his age, but his family said it would be somewhere in the eighties. He said that he was here to vote due to his family commitment. “We don’t want to take any chances, so as to repent later”, he added saying that his family affiliations were well known in the village.

The Border Security Force (BSF) had laid a virtual siege on the village with several rings of security cordon ensuring that the polling was done in a free and fair manner. People without voter cards or any other identification were not allowed inside the polling booths. All the three polling booths were guarded by the BSF with election agents keeping a close watch on those casting their votes here.

Polling was postponed here on May 10 following the killing of a Shiromni Akali Dal agent outside the polling station. The re-poll here scheduled to be completed on May 12, but had to postponed by a day as the cremation of the SAD agent, Mr. Jagpal Singh Gorkha was to take place in the village yesterday. It was then decided by the returning officer in consultation with the Election Commission that the re-poll be got done on May 13. Resultantly the counting for the Ludhiana parliamentary constituency was put off till 2 PM today, so as not to influence the voters here.

Sahauli is expected to play a very decisive in the poll as poll trends indicate no clear sweep for any candidate in this constituency, each vote will be precious. Despite the murder in this village, the response and enthusiasm to the electoral process was quite warm.

Unexpected results upset punters’ applecart
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 13
While it proved to be an extraordinarily good day for the Congress and its allies, it was the worst day for thousands of punters who had staked their bets on an NDA victory, more so for those who had placed their bets on Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s prime ministership.

Interestingly, not many people had staked bets on the Congress or Ms Sonia Gandhi to become the Prime Minister, which appears to be most probable now. While Mr Vajpyee’s prime ministership would have fetched just seven paise for each rupee (thought to be the safest bet), Ms Gandhi’s prime ministership offered six times more (Rs 6 for each Re 1). The punters must be cursing the exit pollsters for having projected such a wrong trend. If the returns offered are so high, nobody likes to take the risk.

Even for the individual tally of the Congress and the BJP the exit polls were way off the mark. While the exit polls gave the Congress of its own less than 120 and the BJP around 185, the final results were quite different. The bookies would offer even rates that means one rupee for each rupee for 125 seats to the Congress and 175 to the BJP. Everybody reportedly placed stakes on the BJP as it was thought to be the safest bet. Here again the punters lost crores of rupees as the BJP came no where near that figure of its own, while the Congress managed to get more than 140 seats of its own.

However, there was some consolation for the punters in Punjab where the results were more or less along the expected lines. The bookies would give just two seats to the Congress and for three seats they offered a better return of about 50 per cent This was considered to be relatively a safe bet with better returns, but at the end of the day even that appeared to be uncertain.

Major surprises in Punjab were said to be Ferozepore and Gurdaspur. Both the seats, according to the satta bazar sources, were considered to be the Congress favourites, while the final results proved to be quite otherwise. While Mr Jagmeet Singh Brar of the Congress lost to Mr Zora Singh Mann of the Shiromani Akali Dal and Ms Sukhbans Kaur of the Congress lost to Mr Vinod Khanna of the BJP for the third successive time.

Those who couldn’t vote — 2nd list
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 13
The following names have been found missing from the voter’s list during this parliamentary elections:

Vineet Sood and Monisha Sood, 3-D, Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana; Ashok Kumar Saini and Manju Saini, 10/7, PAU, Ludhiana; Dharam Pal, Shashi Aggarwal and Vikas Aggarwal, 95-A, Aggar Nagar, Ludhiana; Amit Gupta, Saroj Bala, Rajinder Gupta, 550, Vijay Inder Nagar, Jain Colony, Ludhiana; Sudhir Kumar Sharma and Manju Bhashinee, Phase-III, H No. 53, Aman Park, near Aman Park Gurdwara, VPO Thareeke, Ludhiana; Anant Ram Gupta, Shakuntla Devi, Sanjay Gupta, Meen Joshi, Vinny Gupta and Vishal Gupta, 24, FF HIG Flats, Rajguru Nagar, Ludhiana; Dr R.C. Sharma and Ms Rashmi Sharma, BXX 1110/4, Gurdev Nagar, Ludhiana; Surinder Chand Rana, Ms Surinder Pal, Ashwani Pratap Rana and Seema Rana, Sarpanch Colony, Jamalpur, Ludhiana; Subodh Nayaar, Seema Nayyar and Gaurav Nayyar, 72, Ashok Vihar, Rishi Nagar, Ludhiana; Gurdeep Singh, Mohalla Khwaaja Baja, Jagraon, booth No. 53; Virender Kumar Chopra, Savita Chopra, Rohit Chopra and Monica Chopra, MIG 1286, Sector 32, Tajpur Raod, Ludhiana; Dhanpat Rai Aggaral, Anjana Aggarwal, Sanjeev Aggarwal, Manisha Aggarwal, 303, Premium Apartments, Pakhowal Road, Ludhiana; Madan Lal Dawar, Krishna Kumari, Vipin Chander Dawar and Seema Dawar, 240-F, Dr Kitchlu Nagar, Ludhiana; Saurabh Sood and Swarn Kanta Sood, MIG 1406, Sector 32, Ludhiana-Chandigarh Road, behind Vardhman Mill; Gurdev Singh Dhanjal, Surjit Kaur Dhanjal, Balwinder Singh Dhanjal, Inderjit Kaur Dhanjal, Harpreet Singh Dhanjal, Sarabjit Kaur Dhanjal and Harjit Kaur Dhanjal, 11,101, Partap Nagar, Street No. 7, Ludhiana; Sudhir Kumar Sharma and Manju Bhashinee, Phase-III, H No. 53, Aman Park, near Aman Park Gurdwara, VPO Thareeke, Ludhiana; Yashpaul Singh, Amarjeet Kaur, Kamaldeep Singh and Simardeep Kaur, 179-180 D, Rajguru Nagar, Ludhiana; Sumish, Satish and Vijay, 11-A, Udham Singh Nagar, Ludhiana.

Dr Ashok Kumar Bhandari, Dr Chandra Kanta Bhandari and Raj Rani Bhandari, 45-A, Rishi Nagar, Ludhiana; Rajiv Kumar Kapila and Reetu Kapila, 162-F, Rishi Nagar, Ludhiana; Narinder Singh and Manjit Kaur, residents of 636-I Block, Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar, Ludhiana; Gurmukh Singh, Jagjit Kaur, Varinder Singh, Navneet Gindra, Manpreet Gindra and Maninder Singh, 25, South Model Gram, opposite Guru Arjundev Park, Ludhiana; Rajinder Pal Singh and Khushwant Kaur, 2123, Phase-I, Dugri, Urban Estate, Ludhiana; Kartar Singh, 1208B-17, Azad Nagar, Ludhiana; Ram Nath Sehgal, Shanti Sehgal and Alka Sehgal, 130-A, Green Park, Civil Lines, Ludhiana; Jatinder Munjal and Monika Munjal, D-129, BRS Nagar, Ludhiana; Bhupinder Singh and Kirpal Kaur, 441-Phase-2, Urban Estate, Dugri Road, Ludhiana; Jasdev Singh, Ward No. 3, Machhiwara Road, Ludhiana; Kamlesh Deepak and Kamlesh Deepak, Old Parsonage No. 2, opposite HSB of Christian Medical College, Brown Road, Ludhiana; Jhutth Singh Brar and Ghardubb Kaur Brar, 50-A, Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana; Manpreet Kaur, Karnail Kaur and Dr Mohinder Singh, 136-D, Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar, Ludhiana; Mohinder Singh and Jasbir Kaur, 39-B, BRS Nagar, Ludhiana; Bhupinder Singh and Kirpal Kaur, 441-Phase-2, Urban Estate, Dugri Road, Ludhiana.

Devinder Nath Sharma, Balbir Chand, Pushpa, Mahash Kumar, Rajesh Kumar, Anu and Suman, 1135/151-B-31 Plot No. 242, Sarpanch Colony, Jamalpur PO Focla Point, Ludhiana; Venay Oberoi, Reshma Oberoi, Sham Lal, Ravi and Chetu Ram, 3314, Gurdev Nagar, Post Office Lane, Ludhiana; Swaran Singh, Samindrer Kaur and Amandeep Singh Bains, 589-I, Block, BRS Nagar, Ludhiana; Anil Gupta, Meenakshi Gupta and Saurabh Gupta, 35-Club road, Civil Lines, Ludhiana; Parmanand Gogna, Satya Wati Gogna, Dharamvir Gogna, Anuradha Gogna, Karamvir Gogna, Poonam Gogna and Karan Gogna, 1308/12, Sewakpura, Miller Ganj, Ludhiana; Subhash Mittal, Shukla Mittal, Amit Mittal, Sonia Mittal, Rohit Mittal and Mohit Mittal, 167-J, Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana; Phuman Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Barinder Kaur, Harbhajan Kaur, Baljeet Kaur, Balwinder Singh, Jaspreet Kaur, Harpinder Singh, Paramjit Kaur, Shiv Mohan Singh, Bikram Mohan Singh and Rupinder Mohan Singh, Block-35, Prem Villa, Sidhwan Canal Road, Fatehpur Awana, near Grewal Paper Mill, Barewal, Ludhiana; Dr Kanwaljit Gill, picket terrace No. 2, Senior Staff Colony, CMC, Ludhiana; Jasbir Singh, Swaranjit Singh, Surinder Singh, Kuldip Singh, Raj Pal Kaur, Parveen Kaur, Gurcharan Kaur, 6, Aggar Nagar Extension, Ludhiana; Gauhar Vatsyayan, Sanjivani Ayurvedic Centre, near Rose Garden, main gate, Ludhiana, Dilbir Singh Chhatwal, Harinder Kaur Chhatwal, 117-New Rajguru Nagar, Ludhiana; Ashok Kumar, Sushma Verma, Anupama, Manupriya; B-XX, 3024 Gurdev Nagar, Ludhiana.

COMMUNITY

Sarabha Nagar roads to get fresh surface
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 13
The municipal corporation today took up the work for laying a premix carpet on the main roads in blocks A, B, E, F and G in Sarabha Nagar here at a cost of Rs 15 lakh. Though the project was approved earlier by the Finance and Contracts Committee, it could not be executed due to the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections.

The area councillor, Ms Amrit Varsha Rampal, speaking of other projects for the area, said work would soon start on storm-water drains in I Block of Sarabha Nagar and there was also a proposal for such a drain in Gurdev Nagar. The roads in Gurdev Nagar would be resurfaced. In blocks J and K of Sarabha Nagar also a road-development project was in progress.

According to the councillor, other projects for the ward, like providing sodium lights in Gurdev Nagar and Jagjit Nagar and the widening of the Convent School road, were in the pipeline.

Traders sore over suspension of parcel booking
Kanchan Vasdev
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 13
Industrialists and traders of the city are up in arms against the Railways for not booking the parcels following an order to this effect by the department. The Railway authorities, however, maintained that they were not booking the parcels in view of a circular in issued by the department, which had stated that the parcel booking should be suspended for sometime due to overcrowding of parcel orders in the stations. They said they had instructions to keep the facility suspended till the clearance of pending deliveries.

The traders claimed that their business was being seriously affected by this, as they were not able to deliver the orders to their clients. They claimed that their orders were piling up in the workshops as there was no other means of delivering them.

Mr D.S. Padam, a trader of Darbar Enterprises, said he had gone to book a parcel carrying some electronic goods to railway station at 4 am today. But the staff over there bluntly refused to book his parcel.

“I came back disappointed. I was supposed to send the parcel to a dealer in Mumbai by the end of this week but what will I do now. It will spoil my reputation and my client might go to some other trader. I will lose my business worth thousands of Rupees without any fault of mine,” he rued.

He added that trains starting from Amritsar to Mumbai were not accepting the parcels for stations like Kota, Ratlam, Surat, Baroda, Indore and Ujjain. “We have been urging upon the railway authorities to start booking the parcels but they are not listening to us,” said another trader.

He added that sending parcels by other private agencies was very costly. Moreover, the traders had faith in the Railways so they did not want to hire the services of a private agency.

Another trader said he had to send his consignment till mid May but he was not able to meet the deadline for the same reason. “I employed so many workers to prepare the goods. Now the material is ready but I can’t send it to my client. He had already told me that if I missed the deadline he would not make the payment. Now I am going to lose my money and further orders from the client.”

The Railway authorities, however, expressed helplessness in the matter till further orders were issued by the department in this regard.

Elegance, grace of chikan on display
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 13
The two-day exhibition put up by Rohini of Kaara of Daily City Centre Mall, Gurgaon, opened today at Ruby Hall of Hotel Mahraja Regency. The exhibits displayed showcase contemporary collection of chikankari ensembles. Chikan work is used imaginatively with block printing which looks very elegant.

The outfits embellished with beads and sequins are ideal for evening wear, while embroidered suits in pristine white would make the wearer cool and smart during daytime.

Use of colourful laces with aari work added extra grace to the suits. Some suits had stone work combined with chikankari. The stitched and unstitched suits can be had for Rs 800 upwards.