Parties keep it low key as 3 days left for canvassing

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 12

With three days remaining for canvassing for the December 17 civic body elections, it has largely remained a low-key affair in Jalandhar, Patiala and Amritsar.

None of the main leaders of the major parties — the Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — has so far turned up for campaigning.

The campaigning will conclude on Friday and Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has not visited any of the three cities even once. As for Congress MLAs, they are campaigning for select candidates.

A case in point is councillors-turned-MLAs Rajinder Beri of Jalandhar Central and Sushil Rinku of Jalandhar West. They are confined to wards from where their wives are contesting. Barring Jalandhar Cantt MLA Pargat Singh, the other three Jalandhar city MLAs are first-timers.

On Capt Amarinder’s plan of touring any of the three cities, his media adviser Raveen Thukral said, “These are civic polls, which have to be contested at the local level only.”

State BJP president Vijay Sampla, who hails from Jalandhar, has not campaigned here even once so far.

In Amritsar, the situation is similar. District BJP president Rajesh Honey said, “We had Avinash Rai Khanna here for some programmes. Most other leaders have not been able to make it owing to less time and rain.”

Congress MLA from Amritsar West Raj Kumar Verka said, “We (local leaders) are campaigning ourselves in the wards of our constituencies.”

In Patiala, the campaign is being largely handled by Capt Amarinder’s wife Preneet Kaur and Patiala Rural MLA Brahm Mohindra.

Former BJP minister Manoranjan Kalia said, “As the ruling party is not going full throttle, other parties, too, have not come out strongly. Everyone is fighting individually.”

This, however, was not the case in previous MC elections. “When I became a councillor in 1991, then BJP president LK Advani had campaigned in Jalandhar. One or two prominent leaders kept visiting wards. Since the Congress has been a non-performer in nine months of assuming power, its leaders cannot go to the public and seek votes for party candidates,” Kalia added.

SAD Senior Deputy Mayor Kamaljit Bhatia said, “When the SAD-BJP alliance was in power, then CM Parkash Singh Badal always campaigned in the MC elections. Unlike this time, it was never an individual contest.”

State AAP convener Bhagwant Mann and co-convener Aman Arora are expected to visit Jalandhar tomorrow for the campaigning.