Bathinda,April 24
Many BJP leaders are keeping themselves "away" from SAD candidate Harsimrat Kaur Badal‘s election campaigning in Bathinda. As per the information, state Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJMC) president Mohit Gupta, who hails from Bathinda, has been camping in Amritsar in support of BJP candidate Arun Jaitely, who is contesting against Congress candidate Captain Amarinder Singh.

Another BJP leader from the city, Sunil Singla, is also campaigning in the Doaba and Majha regions of the state as three BJP candidates are contesting from Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur and Amritsar.

With senior BJP leaders campaigning for their own party candidates instead of canvassing for SAD nominee Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the party workers are also preferring to stay away from poll campaigning in Bathinda.

This was evident from the fact that the BJP leaders were unaware of Narendra Modi's visit to Bathinda. State media in-charge of the BJP Sunil Singla said as per the directions of the high command, they were canvassing in the Doaba and Majha regions of the state from March 20.

Meanwhile, a BJP leader said senior leaders had gone to Amritsar as stakes were high there due to a stiff contest between Arun Jaitley and Captain Amarinder Singh. Notably, BJP leaders had boycotted a sangat darshan of Harsimrat Kaur Badal in the city a few days ago.

Meanwhile, the situation is not well in the Congress camp as many Congress workers have gone to Sangrur, Ferozepur and Faridkot for canvassing. 

Bathinda, April 24
Contractual employees in the Education Department today alleged that they were wrongly assigned poll duty in violation of the orders of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Members of the SSA/ RMSA Staff Union said in an order on April 17, the ECI had allowed deployment contractual teachers with some riders.

The ECI had directed that the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) or District Election Officer (DEO) would have to depute regular employees from other departments before assigning poll duty to contractual employees.

The ECI had directed that there should not be more than one contractual teacher at a polling station.

The Election Commission had ordered that a contractual employee should given the duty of a third polling officer instead of a presiding officer (PO). The president of the SSA/ RMSA Staff Union, Beant Singh Phullewal, alleged that in violation of the directions, they were given the duty of POs.

They urged the CEO, Punjab, to re-assess the requirement of contractual staff on the polling day and forward a revised proposal.

Notably, 200 contractual teachers have been assigned poll duty. Earlier, the ECI had directed that no contractual employee should be given poll duty. However, the CEO, Punjab, issued a letter stating that contractual employees cannot be removed from poll duty as most of the duties have already been assigned.

Citing logistics problems, the CEO had said that contractual employees would not be removed from election duty.

Meanwhile, Additional District Election Officer Sonali Giri was not available for comments. 

Bathinda, April 24
Sushil Jindal, an independent candidate, is using animals for campaigning without seeking permission from the District Election Office for the Lok Sabha polls.

Jindal, on Wednesday, had campaigned on a camel, and three days ago on a horse. Neither had he sought permission from the single window nor did he seek any permission from the Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) concerned.

Interestingly, it is learnt that he called up at the election control room yesterday evening, asking if any permissions is to be taken for the use of animals in canvassing.

Even the list of items mentioned in the rate list prepared by the District Election Office (DEO) does not mention any rate for using animals in canvassing.

The rates are important as anything used for canvassing is added to the expenditure account of the candidate.

Sushil Jindal has spent Rs 32,917 on campaigning till the second round of expenditure register checking held on April 22.

As per the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) directions, the Constitution of the country calls for compassion towards living creatures and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960, and Wildlife Protection Act 1972 prohibits over drives, over loads and torture of the animals. Also the use of animals is regulated by Prevention of Cruelty to Draught and Animal Pack Rules.

District Election Officer (DEO) Kamal Kishore Yadav said the use of animals was not allowed in canvassing and they were looking into the issue. “We will serve him a notice,” Yadav said. 

Bathinda, April 24
Claiming overall development of Punjab, especially Bathinda and the nearby areas, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, after visiting several villages in Talwandi Sabo said the NDA government would work for the growth and development of the state. She criticised the UPA government for discriminating with the Opposition-ruled states in the distribution of grants.

Accompanied by Talwandi Sabo MLA, Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu, she addressed the election meetings at Singo, Behman Kaur Singh, Behman Jassa Singh, Gurusar Jagga, Sangat Khurad and Teona Pujarian— TNS 

Bathinda,April 24
In violation of the election code, 200 electricity metres were installed at Beant Singh Nagar in Dhobiana Basti on Wednesday. During a visit to the area, it was found that many newly installed electricity meters there. Some empty meter boxes were also installed.

Raj Kishore, a resident of the area, said more than 200 electricity meters were installed in the area yesterday. He said they had paid Rs 1,400 as security for the meters in August last year and were told that the meters would be istalled before the elections.

Another resident, Neeta, said while a large number of meters were installed in their area, they had been left out. She said she should be provided an electric itymeter.

Pinki, a resident of the same locality, said officials had installed the box of the electricity meter. She also stated that the officials had assured them that the installation process would be over in a couple of days.

Assasr Paswan, former MC and a BJP leader, said the long-pending demand of the people of the area had been fulfilled as 200 electricity meters were installed.

Notably, after the installation of the electricity meters in the area yesterday, local MLA Sarup Chand Singla today visited the area and asked the people to vote for SAD candidate Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

As the government had fulfilled the demand of the residents, the development of the area would be the main priority of the SAD-BJP government, he told the people. 

Bathinda, April 24
Navin Valmiki, a close aide of Sarup Chand Singla, Chief Parliamentary Secretary and Bathinda MLA, today joined the Congress. Navin had been a Congress loyalist a few years back, when he quit the party and joined the SAD and became close to Singla.

Amidst raising of slogans in favour of Manpreet, Navin, accompanied by his supporters, today came back to Congress Bhawan and extended his support to Manpreet Badal, Congres-PPP-CPI joint candidate for the Lok Sabha polls.

Also present during the meeting were Mohan Lal Jhumba, president, District Congress Committee, former MLA and general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee Harmindar Singh Jassi, Iqbal Singh Dhillon, Rupinder Bindra and others.

Earlier, continuing with his door-to-door campaign, Manpreet met the shopkeepers at the Gandhi Market and asked them to use their right to franchise judiciously. 

Bathinda, April 24
Octogenarian Gopi Ram was jubilant when the visit of BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to Bathinda was announced. He fondly remembers serving food twice a day for a year to Modi in 1970. When asked how much he charged then, he laughs and says Rs 10 a month.

An RSS worker and the owner of a dhaba at Dhobi Bazar then, Gopi now lives with his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren at Panchwati Nagar.

“I ran a dhaba from 1960 to 1975. As it was situated close to the RSS office, all RSS leaders and workers used to have breakfast and dinner at my dhaba,” he recalls.

He remembers Modi as a young boy of about 18 who always requested for pure vegetarian non-spicy food. “I used to prepare dal, sabzi and raita in the evening and served paranthas with curd in the morning,” Gopi said.

Modi and other RSS workers used to stay at places like Bathinda for a year or two in those days, Gopi said.

Gopi’s son Rakesh Goyal said almost every senior leader used to eat at his father’s dhaba on their visit to Bathinda. The dhaba was sold off after the emergency was lifted.

“Though we do not have any picture with Narendra Modi but my father has pictures with leaders like former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,” Goyal said.

Remembering those days, Gopi said former president Giani Zail Singh also had food at his dhaba. Gopi refuses to share the names of the persons who did not pay the bill. He, however, added that once bus conductors and drivers of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s transport company did not clear their bills and he barred them from entering the eatery.

“When Badal came to know about it, he not only cleared the pending bills but also deposited the money for next one year in advance”, Gopi remembered.

Remembering Modi, Gopi said he was a workaholic and despite being an introvert, he used to meet a number of people every day.

When asked if he would try to meet him, he said, “I would try to meet him and remind him about his stay in Bathinda.” 

Jalandhar, April 24
Continuing its swoop against excise contractors, the Excise and Taxation Department today conducted a raid at a vend owned by J&S Traders at Alawalpur and found that it had sold off 22 cases of liquor in a single day yesterday.

Excise and Taxation Officer Sukhwinder Singh said the vend owner could not produce any copies of the permit for the bulk sale. He said it was being suspected that the abnormally high sale pointed towards suspected boot-legging for further sale to a party which could even be related to polls. He said investigation into the matter was on and if the owner was not able to prove any record, his vend would be shut down. 

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