Congress candidate from Ward 12 gets highest votes

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 19

Congress candidate Karamjit Singh Sandhu, popularly known as Rintu, from Ward No. 12 polled highest 6,006 votes in the recently held Municipal Corporation elections. His nearest rival BJP’s Gurjant Singh got 1,227 votes.

Talking about getting the maximum votes, he said it was long overdue and people could not hold themselves from showering their love and affection despite 52 per cent polling was witnessed.

“My mother Onkar Kaur remained a councillor from the same ward for two terms — 2002 to 2012. Besides, my family has been in social service since long. For the past five years, nobody from my family contested the elections. When I decided to contest the elections, only eight days were left for campaigning,” he recounted.

He said the kind of response his family received during the elections clearly conveyed that he would win by a considerable margin. His wife Dr Prabhjot Kaur and brother Amarbir Singh Sandhu, social workers in the area, also campaigned for him.

Earlier, it was expected that he might get a ticket to contest the Assembly elections from the North constituency. But he was denied the ticket. He had filed his nomination papers as an Independent candidate to challenge party candidate Sunil Dutti. Later, he withdrew his papers after Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh pacified him.

Jagdish Singh of Congress bagged the minimum votes (998) from Ward No.72 while his opponent Independent candidate Avtar Singh got 966 votes. There were 5,026 voters in their ward.

On getting the minimum votes, Jagdish blamed it to the shifting of couple of streets to neighbouring wards. “The Congress had 800 votes in the streets which were shifted to other wards. Had these streets not been shifted, I would have got more votes,” he rued.

He contested the elections for the second time. Earlier, he had contested as an Independent candidate and bagged 1,187 votes.

He said the rural areas of Prem Nagar, Dhapai and Bhagtanwala come in his ward, which is largely situated on the Chabal road. “Besides better sewerage connection, my priority is to provide potable water to residents,” he added.