J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

Local alliances pay rich dividends in rural polls 
Our Correspondent

Nawanshahr, May 23 
Local-level alliances among different political parties, including the Congress, BSP, PPP and Left parties, to give a united fight to the ruling SAD-BJP combine during the recently concluded zila parishad and block samiti elections, has paid rich dividends to them, especially in the Balachaur sub-division of the district. The Sanjha Morcha, constituted by the Congress, BSP, PPP and Left parties, has succeeded in giving a tough time to the ruling SAD-BJP, especially Chief Parliamentary Secretary Chaudhary Nand Lal, who has consecutively won the election for the fourth time from Balachaur. The Congress candidates succeeded in defeating SAD from two zila parishad zones — Pojewal and Rattewal— falling in the Balachaur sub-division and out of 31 block samiti zones falling in Balachaur and Saroya, the united opposition candidates succeeded in winning 18 zones, while the ruling SAD could win 13 seats only. Even as in Saroya block, the ruling SAD managed to win 8 out of 15 seats, in Balachaur block samiti, the SAD could manage to win only five zones out of total 16.

 In Banga block samiti, too, a close fight between the ruling SAD and the opposition was witnessed due to new political equations. Consequently, out of 23 block samiti zones, both the ruling SAD and the main opposition Congress have won 11 zones each, while an independent candidate has won from one zone. In Nawanshahr, neither the opposition nor the ruling SAD-BJP alliance was entirely united. There were some electoral adjustments between BSP, PPP and the Left parties. Out of total 18 block samiti zones, the ruling SAD won from 11, Congress from five and the Independent candidates from two zones. In Aur block samiti, the ruling SAD managed to win 10 out of 16 zones. The Congress faced a major setback in Daulatpur zone where the Congress nominee, Tirath Kaur, wife of former Market Committee Chairman, Chaman Singh Bhanmazara, a close confidant of Congress MLA from Nawanshahr, Gur Iqbal Kaur Babli, was defeated by the SAD’s Raghuvinder Kaur. The SAD also succeeded in winning Kultham and Mukandpur zones from where Navdeep Singh Anokherwal, son of late Jaswinder Singh Anokherwal, former chairman District Planning Committee, and Surjit Singh Jhinger, a former BSP leader, who has recently joined the SAD along with SK Sukhi, former state general secretary of the BSP, emerged winners.