Gurdaspur Diary: Like father like son: Ajaypal elected Sarpanch

Like his father and veteran leader Sucha Singh Chhotepur, Ajaypal Singh Sandhu too is making waves in the political arena. The erudite Ajaypal has done his BTech (Production) and MA (Human Rights) before he ventured to complete his degree in Law from Panjab University. He has now decided to serve people and his first step in this direction was to get elected as his village Sarpanch. The recently concluded panchayat polls gave him a chance to contest and test his popularity. Everybody now knows the immense influence his family wields in the area. Sucha Singh Chhotepur remained an MLA from the erstwhile Dhariwal Vidhan Sabha seat. His own popularity and the experience of his father meant that Ajaypal Singh became a Sarpanch in the first ever elections that he contested. He bagged 355 votes and was declared the village headman. He considers his victory as a gift for his father and family.

Contribution by Ravi Dhaliwal

Astrologers had a field day

Make hay while the sun shines! This was the mantra astrologers living in rural areas adopted as candidates made a beeline to their residences once the polling was over. These people wanted to know their fate in the elections. A similar phenomenon was witnessed during the assembly elections in 2022 when candidates flocked to these ‘Punditjis’ to know their ‘kismet’ (destiny). The more the number of candidates, the more moolah the Panditji raked in. Today, the sun shone for them, but what about tomorrow? The rumour is that these astrologers are all set to send an invite to people desirous of contesting the forthcoming assembly polls to the Dera Baba Nanak seat.

Feeding canal with coins for good luck

In rural Gurdaspur, where literacy rate is abysmally low, superstitions rule the roost. This was much in evidence even before the first vote had been cast as prospective sarpanches and panches could be seen throwing coins in the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) while standing on the Sathiali bridge on the Gurdaspur-Sri Hargobindpur road. One of them said that he and his forefathers had been getting elected as village headman just because they performed the ritual of throwing coins into the canal on the day of polling. Now, will someone tell him about the famous quote: Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracle grows.