Voters wary of elections in Machhiwara amid lack of choice

The fervour which various parties and voters had initially displayed regarding the civic body elections, is now missing in Machhiwara Sahib. The voters seem to have lost all hope in the electoral system as they feel that the party in power has tried to stifle opposition and turned it in a show of dictatorial regime. It’s not just the Opposition, the electorate, too, has taken the rejection of 23 nomination papers as utter negation of ‘choice’ and ‘options’.

“Elections are no more meant to elect representatives. It is now a game of muscle and money power where the common man is a puppet, acting on the whims of the influential. The purpose of holding elections here seems to have been defeated and everybody believes that the Aam Aadmi Party has played the villain,” shared a resident of Ward 1, where the AAP candidate has been declared victorious ever since the papers of the rival candidates were rejected.

“If this is the situation, why should we bother to think about which candidate deserves to win. If the ruling party exercises its supremacy in the nomination process, it may as well do so on the day of polling. Now when the ruling party has in a way declared itself victorious in six wards with the seventh victorious independent candidate believed to shuffle anytime, the results of the remaining eight wards, too, are in no way difficult to predict,” said a resident of Ward 6, where the AAP is unopposed and victorious.

Such is the resentment among voters in the town that they have decided to keep aloof. There was a time when this discontented lot had shown keen interest in electing their representatives but now they completely disapprove of the factional working of the three-tier system. “The sewer system has collapsed, unhygienic conditions prevail, clearance of blockages seldom takes place, lights and proper roads to the historical Gurdwara Charan Kanwal Sahib is almost nil. Years have passed but no representative could find a solution to the problem of sewer water accumulation. The leaders have always taken us for a ride. Hence, we have been left to our own fate,” was the opinion of yet another voter.

“It is better to sit back and relax rather than line up early in the morning before a polling booth for those who are going to spend government funds for their petty ends once in power,” was the statement of a disgruntled voter.