Bathinda, May 16
Leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and party workers kept the celebrations after the victory of their candidate Harsimrat Kaur Badal from Bathinda constituency a low-key affair this time. Meanwhile, local leaders and workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were jubilant and celebrated the magnificent victory of Narendra Modi by distributing sweets and smearing colours on each other's faces.

The reason behind the indifferent mood of SAD workers was that despite Harsimrat Kaur Badal having won the election, voters of the Bathinda Urban assembly segment voted against her and she trailed by more than 29,000 votes from the constituency this time. It is worth mentioning that in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Harsimrat had trailed by more than 15,000 votes from the Bathinda Urban constituency.

Due to this huge gap, even the SAD MLA from Bathinda Urban constituency, Sarup Chand Singla, did not come for the counting. Even his close associates were seen upset and discussing the debacle.

A SAD leader present during the counting said on the condition of anonymity that there was no reason to celebrate as the winning margin of Harsimrat Badal had gone down drastically. He also stated that there were some wards in the city which were represented by councillors belonging to both SAD and the BJP. "We were expecting a good number of votes from there, but it did not happen," he said.

Singla could not be contacteded for his comments on why Harsimrat had trailed in his constituency.

Former Bathinda Mayor Baljit Singh Birbehman who belongs to SAD, said they were disappointed after having trailed in the city. "We are still not able to find out what went wrong as we were expecting a good response from the city," he said.

Parminder Goyal, president of the Bathinda Urban unit of the BJP said, "We are happy with the results of the Lok Sabha elections and are celebrating the BJP victory by distributing sweets and playing Holi."

On why Harsimrat had trailed from Bathinda Urban, Goyal said it happened due to the policies of the SAD government like imposing of property tax, which affected the common man.

It may be mentioned that SAD candidate Harsimrat Kaur Badal did not even visit the counting centre to collect her certificate after her victory. Meanwhile, the supporters of Harsimrat Badal played with colours outside the counting venue after her victory, but did not carry out a victory procession in the city due to the low margin.

Bathinda, May 16
None of the above (NOTA) has attracted a large number of voters in the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency as 4,685 have voted for NOTA in this election.

A high section of voters here chose to exercise the newly-introduced 'None of the above Option' (NOTA) option as they have "little expectations" from any of the political parties engaged in the electoral battle.

In postal ballot, one voter have opted for NOTA, while in Lambi constituency 431 voters, Bhucho 521 voters, Bathinda urban 907 voters, Bathinda rural 395 voters, Talwandi Sabo 382 voters, Maur 413 voters, Mansa 617 voters, Sardulgarh 489 voters and Budhlada 544 voters have opted for NOTA.

The apex court had given the path-breaking verdict last September, holding voters have a right to reject all candidates contesting polls in a constituency by pressing NOTA.

It is pertinent to mention that this time, the Election Commission of India highlighted, advertised and spread awareness among the 
voters regarding the None of the above (NOTA), which has brought great result as high number of voters have voted for NOTA this year.

Sushil Jindal, an independent candidate, said it was surprising that voters in the Bathinda urban constituency had opted for NOTA in such a high number. It will affect the candidates hard in close neck to neck fight.

He also stated that NOTA is not rejection of votes, it is just that you have voted for nobody.

Satish Arora, another independent candidate, said it is good that people are getting aware and are opting  for NOTA.

Ankush Aggarwal, who voted for NOTA, said he did not find any candidate fit for the Member of Parliament job, as we had already seen SAD candidate while the Congress candidate we have seen when he was in power in the SAD and the 
Aam Aadmi Party also failed to field a worthy candidate, so have voted for NOTA.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav said that was great that people voted for NOTA, as per the Election Commission of India’s direction, we started awareness campaign regarding it and people had opted for it. 

Bathinda, May 16
Property tax, increase in the rates of sand and gravel, alleged involvement of the brother of the Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal in a notorious drug trafficking scam and entry of the Aam Aadmi Party were the factors which worked together and played a role in driving the urban voters away from the Bathinda MP and decreasing the her victory margin.

Although during campaigning in the segment, the Badal bahu and her husband Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab Sukhbir Singh Badal bombarded the voters with requests to not go against her like they had done in the Lok Sabha elections in 2009. In 2009 too, the voters from this segment had voted in favour of her opponent Raninder Singh.

Of the total 14,1876 votes cast in the Bathinda Urban segment, 71,303 votes were cast in favour of Manpreet Singh Badal while Harsimrat could manage to get 41,987 votes. From the beginning of the counting process, Manpreet Singh Badal had expressed his hope from the Bathinda Urban segment stating that he was hoping to balance out the trail in Lambi with the lead in Bathinda Urban segment.

"I am very positive about lead in the Bathinda Urban segment since the voters there had listened to me very carefully and had whole-heartedly supported me during my campaign trail. I am confident of the lead in the segment since they would not give in to temptations in lieu of votes,” Manpreet had said before the counting process began.

The wave of the Aam Aadmi Party also swept the voters in the Bathinda Urban segment, especially the young voters. It is pertinent to note here that despite the fact that AAP’s candidate from Bathinda constituency was in the centre of a storm, facing opposition from the party’s local workers, the candidate Jasraj Singh Longia managed to poll 20,958 votes in the Bathinda Urban segment and total of 87,666 votes in the constituency.

Longia gave a thumbs up to the AAP party’s reputation in the state. Although stating that he didn’t have enough time and manpower, he expressed his happiness over making a dent in the victory margin of Harsimrat Kaur Badal. “I want to thank the young voters for reposing faith in the party and in me and showing it to the SAD-BJP alliance candidate that the youth has power,” he said.

BJP president for Bathinda Urban segment, Parminder Goyal, said that the SAD candidate trailed in Bathinda Urban segment and Mansa due to wrong policies of the SAD leaders in the state. He also credited her victory to the Modi wave in the constituency and across the nation.

Sunil Singla, state media in-charge of the BJP, also accepted that the urban voters were upset with the state government for levying taxes on them and hence, voted against the SAD-BJP candidate in large numbers. He, however, also added that those who voted in favour of other candidates ended up wasting their votes as Harsimrat won at the end.

Bathinda, May 16
Manpreet Singh Badal, son of Gurdev Singh Badal, better known as the “other Manpreet Singh Badal” or the “namesake of the Cong-PPP candidate Manpreet Badal,” managed to show to political experts that the namesake factor does work, if only to a small extent.

The “other” Manpreet Badal, got 4,610 votes in total. While he got 336 votes in Lambi assembly segment, he got 494 votes in Bhucho, 503 votes in Bathinda urban, 453 in Bathinda rural, 480 in in Talwandhi Sabo, 646 in Maur segment, 641 in Mansa in segment, 467 in Sardulgarh segment and 597 in Budhlada segment. He also got one of the 339 postal ballots counted.

The issue came to fore when the namesake filed his nomination papers and the Cong-PPP-CPI candidate Manpreet Singh Badal alleged that the candidate had been fielded by the Shriromani Akali Dal to confuse the voters of the constituency who wanted to vote for him.

The issue further flared up when during a draw of lot to distribute the election symbols to the independent candidates, the namesake was allotted the ‘Kite’ as the symbol. PPP-Cong-CPI candidate Manpreet cried foul alleging that this was a ploy of the ruling alliance to further damage his vote base in the constituency.

Manpreet also demanded transfer if the Returning Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda Kamal Kishore Yadav for playing a partisan role and allowing his namesake to use the ‘Badal’ suffix with his name alleging that while he had all the official records supporting his name, his namesake had none to claim the suffix.

Bathinda, May 16
The independent candidates of the Bathinda constituency made the two main candidates feel the heat by taking away a large number of votes. Of the total number of 11,74,615 votes, cast in the constituency, while Harsimrat polled 5,14,089 votes, Manpreet Badal polled 4,94,215 votes, the independent candidates polled 44,839 votes. As many as 14 independent candidates were in the fray from the constituencies.

It is pertinent to mention here that a majority of the independent candidates did not campaign personally or use any kind of media as part of canvassing in the constituency at all and still managed to get votes.

Representative of the Christian community, Ashish Enoch, polled the highest number of votes among all the independents. Only seven months above the minimum age (25 years) for becoming a Member of the Indian Parliament (MP), Enoch secured 6,617 votes.

President of the Bathinda Hotel, Restaurant and Resorts Association, Satish Arora, who was started his political career this year by becoming a worker of the Aam Aadmi Party and later contesting as an independent candidate polled 5,929 votes, the second highest number of votes among the independent candidates.

Sushil Kumar, who got his 15 minutes of fame in Bathinda urban, the only segment where he campaigned, for riding horse, camel and cycle during his election campaign, polled 1,324 votes in all.

Another candidate Jagdeep Singh Gehri, who is interestingly the brother of the Lok Janshakti Party state president Kirandeep Singh Gehri, polled 1,663. A former municipal councillor, Vijay Kumar, who had made a name for himself for his innovative ways of protesting against the administration and civic authorities for lack of basic amenities in the city, polled 2255 votes.

Bathinda, May 16
While people of the country remained glued to their television sets and radios to know the results of the 16th Lok Sabha Elections, residents of the Ajit Road area, had a tough time due to the stench emanating from the overflowing sewerage over there.

“No matter which party is going to govern the nation, the plight of the people seems to remain the same. We have been facing the problem of overflowing sewage for the past two days,” said Ashok Kumar, a resident of Ajit Road area. He said most of the employees concerned were busy with their cell phones, watching the television and were on election duty.

Ashok along with more than a dozen shopkeepers and residents brought the problem to the notice of the authorities concerned but nothing has been done so far by the authorities concerned.

“Most of the government servants are hooked to their television sets. They are too busy to do anything to resolve issues pertaining to basic amenities,” said Gurjeewanjot, the owner of a grocery store owner.

He said not only the customers, even the commuters do not dare to stop near shops that are flooded with sewerage water.

The stench of sewerage has spread over more than 100 meters in that area. People cover their faces to cross that stretch of the road.

Gurwinder Singh, a resident of the area, said they were facing the problem for more than two days and nobody bothered to fix the problem.

Assistant Municipal Commissioner Kamal Kant denied ignoring the problem in view of the poll results. He said he was looking into the problem and the issue would be resolved at the earliest.

“The problem occurs when people throw solid waste material into the pipes. Since these pipes are not too wide, it leads to blockage,” Kamal said.

He added that it would take some time to clear the blockage and workers would be deployed soon to clear the pipes.