Hit by DeMo & GST, voters want ‘change’

Minna Zutshi

The industrial hub of Ludhiana, steeped in history that dates back to the Harappan civilisation, is driven by sheer economics in which the manufacturer, migrant labourer and the trader all set the ball rolling.

With a sizeable urban middle-class population and a large chunk of migrant labourers, the aspirational value ranks high in the populace.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the political discourse is dominated by issues such as demonetisation, GST, unemployment, farmer crisis, industry in doldrums and a host of local issues that almost overshadow broader issues.

In the 2014 parliamentary polls, the Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency saw a multi-polar contest, wherein Congress candidate Ravneet Singh Bittu won by a thin margin.

Though the Congress won the seat, the AAP got the maximum number of votes in all three rural Assembly segments of Jagraon, Dakha and Gill and one urban Assembly segment of Ludhiana West. However, this time AAP magic seems to be waning, as people tell The Tribune team travelling through Dakha and Jagraon.

“The AAP had emerged as a party that had instilled a new hope in the people. But look what happened! Internal friction and squabbling within the party dashed all hopes of the people who were looking for a positive and development-oriented change,” says Gurmeet Singh, a mechanic at an electronics shop in Jagraon. He is equally dismissive of the traditional political parties.

“Businesses have flopped. Demonetisation has had its negative impact,” he says, sounding pessimistic. He believes that “change” is the only hope. The government should change after five years, otherwise it keeps harping on the same issues, to the detriment of the electorate! For Rajinder Singh, who is in early 60s, the only test of good governance is whether people's issues are taken care of by the government. He feels that the elderly are meted out a raw deal by those in power.

At the Raikot Road, a group of young mechanics is irked over the stray cattle menace, which leads to fatal road accidents.

“Some unscrupulous cattle owners leave their animals on the roadsides. We often witness fatal road accidents here. Our repeated pleas to the district administration to address the issue have gone unheeded,” says Tejinder Singh, who runs a shop on the Raikot Road.

This group thinks that all political parties have failed the people. They would cast their vote for “NOTA” (None of the Above), they say. At nondescript Rumi village, demonetisation dominates the poll talk.

Septuagenarian Ujagar Singh says during the demonetisation days, the common people suffered, while the well-heeled had a smooth sailing.

In the same village, another all-male group that was  whiling away time in playing cards has high hopes from the “third front”. The “third front”, if well forged, may have solutions to many a political ill, believes the group.

There is simmering discontent with the ruling dispensation at the Centre, with some members of the group not hesitating to give a repulsively strong communal twist to the issues.

In the urban segments of the Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency, the voters are equally vocal about the issues, though their criticism of the political parties across all spectrum is tempered with a measure of appreciation for the achievements credited to the parties.

Sitting MP Ravneet Bittu
A Congress candidate, he won the 2014 General Election by a thin margin. He defeated his nearest rival, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Harvinder Singh Phoolka, by 19,709 votes. Bittu received 3,00,459 votes, while Phoolka got 2,80,750.