Leaders intensify campaign as poll date draws nearer

Minna Zutshi
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, May 12

With less than a week left for the polls, the candidates for the Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency are busy campaigning in the three rural Assembly constituencies of Jagraon, Dakha and Gill. Leaders have intensified their campaigning in these constituencies.

Last week saw the Congress candidate, Ravneet Singh Bittu, PDA candidate and Lok Insaaf Party leader Simarjit Bains and AAP candidate Tejpal Singh Gill campaign in the Jagraon Assembly constituency on the very same day. Bains organised a motorcycle rally too.

In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Bains, who was one of the contestants in the four-cornered contest, had finished fourth in each of the three rural Assembly constituencies.

The 2014 Lok Sabha poll results in the Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency had thrown interesting statistics – it was a clean sweep for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the three rural Assembly constituencies. In Dakha, AAP candidate HS Phoolka had polled 46,518 votes, followed by the Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Manpreet Singh Ayali, who got 40,736 votes. The Congress candidate, Ravneet Singh Bittu, had polled 29,893 votes, while Bains had finished fourth with 10,637 votes. In Jagraon too, the maximum number of votes were polled by Phoolka, followed by Ayali, Bittu and Bains. In the Gill Assembly constituency, AAP was on number one position, followed by the Congress. SAD (B) was on third number, while Bains had finished fourth.

In 2014 polls, there was a clearly perceptible AAP wave in the rural Assembly constituencies of the Ludhiana seat as was revealed by the poll results too.

“In 2014, the refrain of the voters was that AAP is a new political party that must be given a chance. The electorate had lost faith in the traditional political parties. Voters were too ready to give chance to a new political party. Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, AAP failed to live up to the people’s expectations,” analyses a resident of Jagraon, pleading anonymity.

He adds: “It seems Bains is trying to make his political presence felt in our area. Whether or not he succeeds is a different matter.”