Despite ire of farmers, BJP had booths in all Gidderbaha villages

Despite facing anger of farm unions, the BJP managed to set up its booths near all polling stations in the Gidderbaha Assembly constituency on Wednesday. Notably, 136 of the total 173 polling booths in the constituency are located in rural areas.

In the Lok Sabha elections in June this year, BJP candidate from Faridkot Hans Raj Hans had failed to set up the party’s booths near all polling stations in the Gidderbaha segment. Gidderbaha is a part of the Faridkot parliamentary constituency.

Day after polling, Manpreet visits office in constituency; Cong, AAP nominees stay home

A day after polling, BJP candidate Manpreet Singh Badal visited his office in Gidderbaha. He met his supporters and sought feedback from them. Congress candidate Amrita Warring and Aam Aadmi Party candidate Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon stayed at their residences.

However, the situation seemed to have changed on the ground in the past about five months. Though the farmers this time too lodged protests against BJP candidate Manpreet Singh Badal and other leaders, no objection was raised on the BJP setting up its booths in villages.

Further, not just daily-earners but some landlords were also seen sitting at the saffron party’s booths. Manpreet also went to a number of booths on the polling day to boost the morale of his workers and supporters.

A Congress leader said, “This is a fact that people in villages don’t object when some big farmer is involved in any activity. Since Manpreet has remained MLA for four times in a row from Gidderbaha, he has contacts in every village here thus some landlords were supporting him. As a result, no one dared to oppose the setting up of BJP’s booths in villages. However, the setting up of booths does not reflect the voting pattern. The election results will come as a mirror to all political parties.”

A farmer leader had on November 11 cornered Manpreet at Dhulkot village here but the latter had managed to escape in his SUV. Further, farmers had once tried to gherao Manpreet’s wife Vinu near the BJP’s office. They had also lodged a protest near BJP’s state in-charge and former CM of Gujarat Vijay Rupani’s event in Gidderbaha town on November 7. Besides, the farmers had protested outside Manpreet’s office at Gidderbaha for almost a week. They ended it on November 12 when Manpreet gave them an assurance that he would become a “middle-man” between them and the Centre for their demands.