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Lok Sabha Polls
Ideologies overlap in run-up to Faridkot LS polls
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Elections have side-effects too!
Hanumangarh admn ready for polling, staff sent to stations
To ensure ‘peaceful’ polls, cops arrest four Congmen
Khemuana labourers
end protest, to vote today
Poll preparations in place at Ferozepur
Cong councillor’s house ransacked
‘95 pc have voter I-cards’
Stones pelted on vehicle of Barnala’s wife
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SAD, Cong square off in Faridkot
Kulwinder Sandhu/Shivani Bhakoo Tribune News Service
Faridkot, May 6 The other candidates contesting the elections are Dr Resham Singh of BSP, Kaushalya Chaman Bhaura of CPI, Jasvir Singh of Mool-bharti (S) party, Prem Singh of SP, Raj Kaur of All India Dalit Welfare Party, Pritam Singh of Republican Party, Gurmeet Singh of Punjab Labour Party and Nirmal Singh, Sharan Kaur, Gurpreet Singh, Nathu Ram, Sukhwinder Singh, Veerpal Kaur all independents. In the recent past, it has been the home constituency of Sukhbir Singh Badal- the outgoing Lok Sabha member from here and the Congress stalwart Jagmeet Singh Brar. The electoral contests among them used to be very interesting but reorganisation of this constituency has taken away the curiosity of the voters. The 32-year-old Danny is a son of the former Excise and Taxation minister Sardul Singh, who is fighting the first electoral battle of his life while Gulshan is the sitting Lok Sabha member from Bathinda constituency. Hoping to get support from the youth, the young Congress candidate is also eying the Dalits, who comprise more than 30 per cent of the total population. His rival, Gulshan is banking on the legacy of junior Badal, besides, hoping for a good response from the women voters. The SAD is trying to put the focus on development works carried out by the state government in the past two years while the Congress candidate is seeking votes in the name of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a bid to emotionally attract the Sikh voters. Here, the Congress has seven MLAs while the SAD has got just two MLAs, which gives the Congress an upper hand but the ruling SAD has the advantage of being in power in the state. The CPI candidate Kaushalya Chaman Bhaura is leaving no chance to lash out at both the SAD and the Congress condemning their policies and programmes while the BSP candidate Dr Resham Singh is projecting Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati as the future PM of the country. Jasvir Singh of Moolbharti (S) party is highlighting the plight of the labour class. There are 12,82,885 voters in this constituency, out of which, 6,12,504 are women voters. Spread in an area of about 6,000 square kilometres it has nine assembly segments Nihalsinghwala, Baghapurana, Moga, Dharamkot, Gidderbaha, Faridkot, Kotkapura, Jaito and Rampura Phul. There are 1,369 polling stations at 672 locations in the constituency, out of which, 293 are sensitive and 214 are hyper-sensitive polling stations. The maximum numbers of sensitive and hyper-sensitive polling stations are in Gidderbaha Assembly segment identified as 26 and 103 respectively.
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Ideologies overlap in run-up to Faridkot LS polls
Faridkot, May 6 The car bears a flag of Congress, a poster of Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale along with the posters of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and the party candidate contesting the election. This trend of confusing ideologies widely prevalent among the rural folk in Faridkot, Moga and Ferozepur districts indicate either sheer ignorance of the rural people or the changing face of social, political and economic life in the state. Rajinder Singh (alias), resident of a village in Moga, who was once a staunch supporter of Bhindrawale's ideology joined the Congress party a couple of years back purely for political considerations. However, this time he says, “Bhindrawale's presence in the 20th century Sikh history cannot be ignored by the community at any cost even when there are diverse views on his ideology." The socio-economic and political environment of the state has changed a lot during the past ten years after the end of the militancy. The common people have started evaluating losses that the state had suffered during the black days. Even the former militants are now leading a common life with their families. Political observers say that this socio-political transformation has come in the Sikh community with the change in generation. The youths attached with the militancy presently leading a normal life have now matured and are leading a married life taking care of their families and children. The young generation after the end of militancy in the early nineties are more concerned for their better education and career planning. This change has come with the setting-up of scores of private professional educational institutes across the state. However, amid this socio-political and economic changes among the Sikh youths, the basic mindset of the middle-age and older people, who had witnessed the militancy period or were in any way attached with it, has not yet revolutionised with the aspirations and hopes of the new generation. Yet, their political aspirations are
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Tight security as Bathinda goes to polls
Bathinda, May 6 As per the details available, 4500 polling staff have been deputed in Bathinda’s 698 polling stations. Around 3500 personnel have been deployed at 452 polling stations of Mansa. For 152 stations in Lambi, about 850 polling staff have been deputed. Bathinda has 412 sensitive and 122 hyper-sensitive booths. Mansa has 125 sensitive and 51 hypersensitive booths while Lambi in Muktsar district has 17 sensitive and eight hypersensitive booths. In Bathinda, videography will be done at 302 polling stations. In Mansa, videography would be done at 70 booths and in Lambi, around 25 booths have been selected. Further, Bathinda has been divided into 67 sectors with an equal number of officers and paramedical staff. In a similar way, Mansa has been divided into 35 sectors and Lambi into 12 sectors. To monitor the situation, the Election Commission has appointed 610 micro-observers for Bathinda, 96 for Mansa and 114 for Lambi. As per the details available, a total of 13,36,786 voters, including 7,04,080 men and 6,32,706 women are expected to exercise their franchise tomorrow.
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Elections have side-effects too!
Bathinda, May 6 As electioneering gained momentum with each passing day, maids in the city preferred to relish the poll process instead of whiling away their time in mundane chores like washing utensils and clothes. The maids, that quintesential part of the proletariat or the working class, so ardently wooed by every political party, preferred to enjoy the speeches of their leaders, taking unscheduled day offs at their place of work, leaving the housewives fuming. Women, working as well as housewives, had been cursing the polls but in contrast, the maids enjoyed it and wanted the poll season to stretch as much as possible. The reason: Political leaders engaged the maids to attend their political rallies to show off their strength. In lieu of bunking their regular jobs, the maids got much more than their regular salary. “In this area, I have been working as a maid for the past two years and after performing all chores like sweeping and washing dishes at three houses, I earn Rs 800 every month. But ever since the election season started, I took a break of at least three days a week and joined the political rallies. In lieu of just a three-hour attendance, I got Rs 100 per day,” said Meena Rani, a maid working in Vishal Nagar. A middle aged maid, Pooja Devi, working in Tagore Nagar, said, “The employers used to deduct about half of our salaries, which remained around Rs 150 per house per month. But by attending two political rallies at different places, I earned the same amount in just a day. So I wished the poll process never ended.” But in contrast, the housewives narrated their own tales. “I was really fed up with this election fever. I am suffering from knee pain due to which I had engaged a maid around a year back. Fascinated by the political rallies, she started going on frequent leaves. Irked, I sacked her a fortnight back, but could not find any other to replace her,” said Pratibha Rani, a housewife of Panchwati Nagar. Prarthana, a working woman of Ganesha Basti, said, “I leave my house at 7.30 am but before that I prepare breakfast for the family and sweep the house. Even after being tired after returning home in the evening, I have no option but to do all the pending chores which earlier, my maid used to do.” Cursing the polls, she said, “I pray that the elections should never come. One should just impose the leaders on us.”
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Hanumangarh admn ready for polling, staff sent to stations
Hanumangarh/Abohar, May 6 The district administration has sanctioned a special allowance of Rs 300 for each booth for shade and drinking water. 177 polling parties for Sangria, 211 for Hanumangarh, 222 for Peelibanga, 205 for Nohar and 208 for Bhadra segments were dispatched. In addition to this, 118 zonal magistrates, 44 videography supervisors and 103 micro-observers also left for their respective destinations. Earlier, EVM machines were distributed by opening the strong rooms in the presence of the observers from the Election Commission. Before leaving for the place of the polling the staff was allowed to have postal ballots for their use. Meanwhile, zonal magistrate Harmel Singh from the Rajasthan State Seeds Corporation has been placed under suspension. The DC said that Harmel Singh was allegedly found in inebriated condition today when he was to join the polling staff and was not in a position to perform the task fairly. His headquarter will be Nohar during the period of suspension, the DC said. The DC clarified that each candidate will be permitted to use only one vehicle for whole of the Lok Sabha constituency tomorrow. His/her election agents in the respective segments can also be allowed to have one vehicle each but no vehicle will be permitted to ferry the voters. |
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To ensure ‘peaceful’ polls, cops arrest four Congmen
Bathinda, May 6 According to details available, the Cantonment police nabbed the four accused while moving in a metallic silver coloured Innova, bearing number PB11 AK 8989 near Bahia Resorts, located on the Bathinda-Barnala road, this evening. Confirming the arrest, SHO Cantonment police station said, “They have been arrested as a preventive measure as we had received a tip-off that they may disturb peace during the voting process to be held tomorrow.” While talking to TNS, Rajbir Singh Padiala said, “Police has nabbed us on the orders of the SAD (B) leaders as they are irritated because we switched our loyalty to Congress. We had left the SAD due to the high-handedness of SAD (B) chief Sukhbir Badal.” “We are supporting Raninder Singh and were coming from Sirhind and the police arrested us here when we were going to the resort for accommodation. It reflects the partial attitude of the police towards us as a number SGPC activists and SAD workers, whom we personally know are still moving freely in the district,” said Amarinder Singh Libra. It may be mentioned that Rajbir Singh Padiala was a loyalist of Gurcharan Singh Tohra and son of late MLA Bachittar Singh from Kharar. Meanwhile, Amarinder Singh Libra is the son of Kirpal Singh Libra, a former SAD leader. The two others arrested are Balbir Singh Libra and Sukhdeep Singh Padiala. |
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Khemuana labourers
end protest, to vote today
Bathinda, May 6 Resham Singh, a member of the 10-member committee formed to pursue the case of the eight labourers who met with an accident on April 16, informed that Gurpreet Singh
Maluka, a SAD leader, and Balkar Singh, member, Zila Parishad, Bathinda, visited and consoled the bereaved families this evening. They also assured them of every help in the case against the
arhtiya, on whose direction the labourers were being transported. When the committee asked they were visiting them a day before the polls, Maluka said they were under impression that the protest was an outcome of some provocation. But the committee has reportedly told the visitors that their protest was against the system and not against any political party. They had been protesting against the police inaction on their
case. Gurpreet Singh, president of the committee, has asked the labourers to end the protest and vote tomorrow. In whose favour they should vote would be their individual choice, he added. |
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Poll preparations in place at Ferozepur
Ferozepur, May 6 There were around 150 history sheeters in the district, out of which 66 have been bound down and the police was keeping a close eye on the movement of all others, he added. He said that two vehicles without registration numbers have been impounded and instructions have been passed to the police to impound any such vehicle roaming without registration number. All outsiders have already been asked to leave the district at once, he said. According to the information, out of 1417 polling stations in this constituency, 312 have been declared sensitive and 64 have been put as hypersensitive. Sections of paramilitary forces have also been deployed at 126 crucial polling stations in 7 Assembly segments of this district and strength of police force has been doubled at sensitive booths, he mentioned. — OC
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Cong councillor’s house ransacked
Abohar, May 6 Singhmar along with Mohinder Pal, Kahna Ram, Subhash Chander, Ajay Kumar, Nathu Ram, Gopal Dass, Mangla Ram, Balu Ram, Lal Chand, Dharam Pal, Sunil Kumar and Aman Kumar had been arrested under section 452, 427, 229, 341, 506, 148 and 149 of the IPC for allegedly ransacking the palatial house of Congress councillor Sanjeev Chahar in new Suraj Nagari here on Tuesday. They had also made an abortive bid to force entry into the South Avenue residence of legislator Sunil Jakhar, sources said. Meanwhile, the BJP "game-plan" to exploit the incident on community basis to take political mileage a day before the Lok Sabha poll, suffered set back today. During a meeting on Wednesday, community leaders Ram Kumar former sarpanch of village Jandwala Hanwanta, Vijay Mahar former member of the Zila Parishad, former sarpanches Ram Kumar Jandwala Hanwanta, Harchand Jhotwal Kallarkhera, Rameshwer Dharampura, Jasmer Dhaneria Dhaani Mandla and Amit Sokhal of Sayeedwala said none would be allowed to vitiate the congenial atmosphere that prevailed in the Kumhar community. — OC
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Mansa, May 6 He expressed the hope for smooth polling. Meanwhile, SSP Manwinder Singh said that over 2000 police personnel have been deployed including 300 personnel of CRPF in the polling stations of the district. He also informed that 51 polling stations have been declared hypersensitive and 125 sensitive out of total 293 polling stations. He assured that polling would be completed in a peaceful manner.
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Stones pelted on vehicle of Barnala’s wife
Sangrur/Barnala, May 6 Due to the stone-pelting the rear glass of the vehicle reportedly got damaged almost completely. Talking to The Tribune Gurmail Singh Chhiniwal, PA to Surjit Singh Barnala, said that some persons gave a signal to stop the vehicles. Bibi Barnala got her Innova stopped and lowered the side glass to talk to them. But they started raising slogans,“Dhindsa Zindabad”, “Bibi Barnala Murdabad”, and asked her why she was working for the defeat of SAD candidate. Dhindsa said this was a “conspiracy” hatched by the Barnala family to defame him in the current LS polls. —
TNS |
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Local lad clears civil services
Bathinda, May 6 |
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