Amritsar, May 17
It was a day of celebration for the close relatives of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the holy city. 

Besides the relatives, friends and neighbors thronged the house of Surjit Singh Kohli, brother of Dr Manmohan Singh, to congratulate him on the occasion of Congress’ big victory in Lok Sabha elections. They also distributed sweets.

Talking to the media, Surjit said though the family is happy over Dr Singh’s becoming Prime Minister for the second time, it is disappointing that the people of Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency did not honour his (Dr Singh’s) appeal to cast their votes in favour of the Congress candidate O.P. Soni. 

He hoped that Dr Singh would once again take initiative to bring in mega projects for the city and the border region. — TNS

Jalandhar, May 17
Thanks to infighting in the BJP, Congress candidate Mohinder Singh Kaypee could sail through the Jalandhar (Reserve) Parliamentary seat with a margin of 36,445 votes from his nearest rival and SAD nominee Hans Raj Hans.

The former PPCC chief polled 4,08,103 votes as compared to 3,71,658 votes by Hans. The total votes polled were 8,99,664. BSP candidate Surjit Singh stood third with 93,592 votes, much more than the 60, 000 polled by the BSP candidate during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

Politically speaking, it seems that the strong anti-incumbency factors against the ruling alliance and the disinterest of the BJP rank and file in the urban seats brought cheer for the Congress as its nominee attained a handsome lead in seven assembly constituencies of the total nine in the parliamentary polls.

Before de-limitation, there were 10 assembly segments and SAD-BJP won nine of them during assembly poll barring the Nakodar assembly segment that was bagged by the Congress.

Interestingly, in the present Lok Sabha polls the whole voting pattern of the previous assembly polls was reversed and barring Nakodar (represented by Congress MLA Amarjit Singh Samra) and Shahkot, Kaypee led in all the remaining seven segments.

Kaypee led in Phillaur (1443), Kartarpur (2306) Jalandhar West (12,958), Jalandhar Central (10,125), Jalandhar North (18,776), Jalandhar Cantonment (11,786) and in Adampur (985).

On the other hand, Hans got a lead of 6120 votes in Nakodar and of 15,928 in Shahkot assembly segments only.

It is pertinent to mention that there was huge lead in the urban constituencies, barring Jalandhar Central constituency represented by Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia where Kaypee attained a thin lead of about only 1,000 votes.

Commenting on the defeat of the alliance from this seat, Kalia said his party was due for some deep introspection and adequate measures will be taken so that they were well prepared for the assembly elections.

Khadoor Sahib, May 17
While Congress candidate Rana Gurjit Singh from Khadoor Sahib failed to continue his winning spree, he succeeded in getting lead in three Assembly segments out of total nine falling under this parliamentary constituency.

Rana got lead in Kapurthala (11,638 votes), Sultanpur Lodhi (1550 votes) and Tarntaran (337 votes) Assembly segments.

While Kapurthala is his home constituency as his wife Rana Rajbans Kaur is MLA from here, the lead of 1,550 votes in a traditionally Akali bastion of Sultanpur Lodhi Assembly segment may be considered remarkable for him.

On the other hand, SAD candidate Rattan Singh Ajnala got lead in all the other six Assembly constituencies of Zira, Jandiala, Khem Karan, Patti, Khadur Sahib and Baba Bakala.

Rana got a major setback in Zira where Ajnala succeeded in getting a considerable lead of 11,658 votes. Interestingly, Zira is that Assembly segment where Congress candidate Naresh Kataria had won the previous Assembly elections in 2007.

Besides, Ajnala ensured lead of 14,782 votes in Khem Karan, 9,806 votes in Patti, 4,665 votes in Khadoor Sahib, 2,277 votes in Jandiala and 1,622 votes in Baba Bakala Assembly segment.

In this way, Rana failed to break Akali bastion despite raising the issue of Sikh Prime Minister in his rallies. Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s rally at Kaka Kandiala village in Tarn Taran in Rana’s favour could not work.

Hoshiarpur, May 17
Three youths, identified as Manpreet Singh (18), Surinder Singh (16) and Parminder Singh (19), of Pandori Sumlan village (Hariana), drowned in the reservoir of Dholbaha Dam, 28 km from here, on Friday evening.

According to information, the trio got stuck in the marshy waters of the dam when they jumped in for a dip but unfortunately drowned.

The boys came to Hariana town to participate in a function but when they did not return to their homes till late evening, their families tried to contact them, but in vain. Subsequently, they searched for the youths in the vicinity of the dam and found the Alto car (PB-07B-4155) abandoned near a sub-mountainous Kukanet village, 5 km upstream of the dam.

During investigation, their clothes were found lying on bank of the reservoir. Later, it was assumed that the trio might have jumped in the water for a dip and while bathing were drowned.

Amritsar, May 17
The police arrested five members of an inter-state gang and recovered one .32-bore revolver, one .12-bore country-made pistol, cartridges and one sharp-edged weapon from their possession.

A case has been registered under sections 399 and 402 of the IPC and 25/54/59 of the Arms Act at the Civil Lines police station. The accused were identified as Balbir Singh, alias Raju, a resident of Chunna Mandi, Delhi, Satpal and Pawan Kumar of Jammu, Narinder Singh of Sultanwind Road and Jagtar Singh of East Mohan Nagar.

According to information, a raid was conducted in which five members of the gang, who were making plans to rob one Deepak Kumar (resident of Majitha Road), were held.

The police has also recovered a Santro car (PB02-AT-2369) and weapons and two mobiles. — TNS

Amritsar, May 17
The Special Narcotics Cell seized 300 kg of poppy husk and 1.5 kg of opium in two separate incidents here today. Four persons have been arrested in this regard.

The SNC authorities said youths in 20s, two having same name of Sandeep Kumar and Gurbir, residents of Khanna, and former students of Panjab University, Chandigarh, were arrested near Jandiala Guru bypass. The huge quantity of contraband was seized from the Scorpio vehicle in which they were traveling.

A case has been registered under sections 15, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act against them.

In another incident, Diwan Singh was nabbed with 1.5 kg of opium which he had concealed in his Tata Safari vehicle. He was arrested near Jandiala Bridge. The SNC authorities said the accused was involved in the illegal trade for the past six years. 

Diwan, who earlier used to supply combine for harvesting crops, brought the contraband from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and smuggled it to the rural areas. A case under sections 18, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against him.