Ludhiana, May 11
Hectic electioneering by all the major parties, which roped in political bigwigs and Bollywood stars to add a dash of glitz and glamour to their campaign, seems to have not gone down very well with majority of city residents, who feel that poll expense needs to be heavily pruned and there should be a ban on big rallies.

Says PC Garg, a senior tax consultant: “Big rallies mean unnecessary wastage of money and time. The roads get clogged; people cannot reach their destinations on time. Though there has been a definite decrease in expenditure towards banners and posters --- which only result in defacement of public property --- scope of further improvement is still there. Regarding the rallies, the government should not allow a gatherings of more than 150 people.”

Dharmendra Joshi, a pharmaceutical distributor, seconds the opinion. “Elections mean a lot of wastage of money. The strength of the candidate is gauged by the number of vehicles and supporters in his rally, as a result huge cash is pumped into campaigns. No body wants to be left behind, so it turns into a vicious cycle, wherein one party sets the trend and others ape it blindly,” he asserts.

“I feel that the right to chose the ‘none of the above candidates’ option will go a long way in curing our political system. The government should immediately clear the Bill pertaining to it. The Bill proposes that if more than 50 per cent voters chose ‘none of the above’ option, the election to that particularly constituency should stand cancelled,” opines Garg.

VK Goyal, chief executive, Vardhman Spinning and General Mills, feels there has been no change in the election campaigns in all these years except for the fact that they have become more lavish and inconvenient. “The speeches made by the nominees are nothing but a continuous saga of allegations, personal attacks and hitting below the belt,” he adds.

The entire system needs to be streamlined in terms of the cost, manpower involved and time management. And we definitely don’t want any inconvenience,” quips Rakesh Gupta, a stock broker. “Even the routine official work comes to a standstill once the elections are announced. 

A bridge near my house at Dugri was completed more than a month back, but it has not been opened to public till date,” rues Malwinder Sandhu, a school teacher. Even students are upset as the examination of Panjab University and affiliated colleges had to be postponed. “I am surprised at the massive public involvement in the election process. 

If even half the money and manpower is used for social welfare activities, it can bring about a sea change in our country,” says Paramvir Singh, a law graduate.

Prof Amarjit Singh, a former head of department of journalism, Punjab Agricultural University, said, “The campaigning this time touched the nadir of public decency. In majority of the places, it is a battle of political supremacy. The parties never talk about any issues of national interest or policies for public welfare.” 

Amritsar, May 11
As the curtains fell on the campaigning for the last phase of parliamentary elections on Monday, the holy city residents had divergent views on which party or alliance will finally hold reins of power in the 15th Lok Sabha.

Dinesh Juneja, a garment manufacturer, is hopeful of a fresh five-year term for the Congress-led UPA. “ There has been an annual growth of 8 to 9 per cent in the last five years. It has given a big impetus to business,” said Juneja, adding that the BJP and its allies had failed to frame proper economic policies. 

However, Sanjeev Mehra, a textile exporter, feels the opposite. “The NDA government would be able to provide better stability and equitable growth. Apart from other things, there are chances of more goodwill and harmony among all sections of the society in their regime. The UPA government had been pro-rich and the so-called growth had not reached the grassroots-level,” he adds.

There are also some who feel that the image of the candidate matters more than the party. “Even though the Congress candidate OP Soni is expected to give tough fight to the SAD-BJP candidate Navjot Singh, I am betting on the cricketer-turned-politician, as he has a very clean image.

Also, he has initiated several development projects in the city,” claims Randeep Singh, a hotelier. Dr Adlakha , a medical practitioner, feels that regardless of any party winning, the city desperately needs big central projects and better infrastructure.

However, people like Master Ajit Singh, a social activist and an educationist, are disillusioned with the entire process. “No political party has been able to address the basic problems like drug addiction and illiteracy plaguing the city. and uplifting the living standards of slum dwellers. Look at slums here. The people live in virtual hell,” he exclaims..

Interestingly the activists of Mission Aagaaz, an NGO, conducted a survey “Know your candidate” and were shocked to see that majority of educated voters were unable to identify the contestants in the fray. 

In the era of information technology and hi-tech campaigns, gods seem to have overshadowed the election campaigning in “Devbhumi” (abode of the gods) with candidates invoking the blessings of the gods to have that “extra edge” over their political rivals in the run-up to the battle royale of May 13.

At least this is true in the Mandi parliamentary constituency where two “Rajas”, Virbhadra Singh (Congress) and Maheshwar Singh (BJP), are fighting it out for supremacy. In fact, with both rivals relying on gods, particularly in the Kulu valley where every village is supposed to have a village god, nobody seems to be minding the alleged misuse of religion for boosting electoral prospects.

The parties find nothing wrong in invoking the blessings of the “devtas” terming it a part of the “aastha” (belief of the people). It is that belief which is virtually misused by politicians to coax the electors to vote in their favour.

“The belief in dev pratha has been part of the state’s electoral history for a long time and was a convenient tool for parties for securing additional votes,” senior journalist and celebrated photographer Birbal Sharma says.

It is learnt that in certain villages in the constituency, considered to be the largest in the country (areawise), there is a tradition where the entire village is asked to swear on “lota and namak” (pot and salt) to vote for a particular candidate.

This is particularly true of the remote areas of Kinnaur, Mandi and Kulu, where the inhospitable terrain had made campaigning by the candidates difficult. Given its huge size, scores of villages could not be covered by the candidates personally and second-rung leaders were resorting to the “lota namak” tradition.

This is not all.Taking religion and superstition to the next level, the contestants go to temples and godmen for “puchh” (forecast) of their political career.While the “puchh” tradition has deep roots in the state, there is a sudden spurt in this phenomenon in election days, residents claim.

In fact, Maheshwar Singh is a staunch devotee of Lord Raghunath and one of the chief organisers of the famous Kulu Dasehra. It was Maheshwar who had organised the “dev sansad” (parliament of gods) against the controversial ski village project a few years ago where the gods reportedly “disapproved” the project.

Simiarly, Virbhadra Singh never misses a chance to invoke the blessings of his “kuldevi” Bhimakali at Saharan. Both Virbhadra and Maheshwar made it a point to seek the blessings of their “kuldevis” before filing the nomination papers. In fact, during the campaigning the two leaders invoke the blessings of the gods time and again.

The Mandi parliamentary seat had been a pocket borough of Sukh Ram with the former minister being elected for 11 times, thrice to the Parliament and 8 times to the state Assembly, from here. 

With two of his former “heavyweight” friends turning foes, Mulayam Singh Yadav and his Samajwadi Party faces a tough challenge on this seat. Also, adding to the SP supremo’s woes is the fact that his successful Muslim-Yadav or ‘MY’ formula stands vertically split in Badaun.

Former foreign minister, sitting MP and a friend of Rajiv Gandhi, Saleem Sherwani and mafia-turned-politician DP Yadav have left the Mulayam camp to join the Congress and the BSP, respectively.

Talking to the Tribune, the two leaders blamed Mulayam for promoting “Parivaarvaad” (dynastic rule) by nominating his nephew Dharmendra Yadav for the seat.

The famous formula of Muslim-Yadav that propelled Mulayam’s party to the national scene may not work this time as Muslims are clearly backing Sherwani , while Yadavs are opting for muscleman DP Yadav.

Also, the friendship between Mulayam and Kalyan Singh is weighing heavily on minds of Muslim voters, whose population is around 3.10 lakh. Sherwani is a five-term MP and the Congress is backing him fully.

AICC president Sonia Gandhi campaigned for him on May 9 and her rally received a good response. Sherwani hopes that upper-caste Hindus will vote for the Congress, as they will not opt for Yadavs due to their background.

On the other hand, DP Yadav matched the Congress might with a huge rally of the party supremo Mayawati. Yadav, who makes extensive use of a chopper during his campaign, aims at netting the Dalit and Yadav votes. 

Chandigarh, May 11
Unmindful of a bitter pitch, including personal attacks, the electioneering has generated this time, prime ministerial candidates, Dr Manmohan Singh (UPA) and LK Advani (NDA), chose Punjab to be their final battlefield for the ultimate round of campaigning for the elections to the 15th Lok Sabha.

Interestingly, both the UPA and the NDA eulogised Punjab and its people for their immense contribution in the freedom struggle and making the country self-sufficient in food grain, yet Sikh PM remained a major ,though, controversial poll issue.

Since Punjab could not keep itself aloof from the electioneering trends in the rest of the country, it witnessed several unsavoury moments as the leadership of both the SAD-BJP combine and the Congress remained engaged in a slanging match throughout the campaigning.

It all started with protests against the grant of Congress ticket to both Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar after they had been given clean chit by the CBI in anti-Sikh riots case of 1984. The Congress quickly withdrew their tickets to prevent the issue from snowballing into a major election issue.

Instead, the Congress played the Sikh Prime Minister card well maintaining that it was only during its rule, a Sikh could complete five-year term in office as Prime Minister besides the country getting its first Sikh Army commander.

NDA’s counter offensive of describing Dr Manmohan Singh as a weak Prime Minister primarily for his decision not to contest the Lok Sabha elections on health grounds was either criticised or ignored.

The campaigning climaxed on the final two days. Both the UPA and the NDA not only paraded their top leaders but also used Bollywood stars to woo voters of this border state.

On the final day today, hostile hot weather notwithstanding, Dr Manmohan Singh chose the border belt of Amritsar and Taran Tarn for his two final election rallies. Advani also preferred Majitha in the Majha region for his final attempt to win Punjab electors.

Dr Manmohan Singh, however, flew to Ludhiana where he addressed a press conference, less than an hour before the end of the campaigning.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi visited Punjab once and addressed three elections rallies at Chandigarh, Jalandhar and Gurdaspur. Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who launched Congress campaign in Punjab by addressing a rally at Bathinda, also addressed rallies at Mohali, Hoshiarpur, Moga and Jalandhar. He was here for the final assault, joining Prime Minister at a rally in Amritsar.

Dr Manmohan Singh remained in demand and had to return today after he visited Jalalabad in the initial phase of campaigning.

The Congress also brought Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to campaign in some areas.

The NDA brought in Advani, Nitish Kumar, Narendra Modi, Sharad Yadav, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Chandrasekhar Rao, Chandra Mohan Potwari, Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, Om Parkash Chautala, Ch Ajit Singh, BS Yedyurappa, Gopinath Munde, Prem Kumar Dhumal and others. Salman Khan, Hema Malini, Akshay Khanna, Sunny Deol and Shatrughan Sinha also campaigned for BJP-SAD candidates.

Besides former test cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, other star candidate in this election has been Hans Raj Hans, State Singer of Punjab, who is SAD-BJP candidate from Jalandhar.

Fatehgarh Sahib, May 11
Warhorses act are an asset for political parties. The adage has proved true in this newly created reserved constituency where two veterans - Charanjit Singh Atwal of the SAD and Sukhdev Singh Libra of the Congress - are locked in a direct contest.

In fact, Fatehgarh Sahib has emerged as the only constituency in Punjab where two of the oldest candidates of the SAD and the Congress are pitched against each other while aiming at another stint in the 15th Lok Sabha.

With rich experience, both the septuagenarians with Akali background are engaged in a battle of nerves. At 77, Sukhdev Singh Libra is the oldest candidate and sitting MP. On the other hand, his competitor, Charanjit Singh Atwal is 72.

In other constituencies, veterans of one or the other party are pitched against relatively younger candidates.

Trailing Libra in terms of age is 76-year-old, Gurcharan Singh Galib, who is contesting on the SAD ticket from Ludhiana against 44-year-old Congress candidate Manish Tewari.

In case of Amritsar seat, 72-year-old former Punjab Governor BKN Chibber is pitched against 52-year-old Congress candidate Om Parkash Soni and 45-year-old BJP candidate Navjot Singh Sidhu.

In the fourth phase polling held on May 7, SAD’s candidate from Sangrur Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa fought the battle of ballots against 37-year-old Congress candidate Vijay Kumar Singla and 64-year-old SAD (M) candidate Simranjit Singh Mann.

With the D-day drawing close, the Congress has once again started harping on its favourite election issue in Himachal Pradesh: Chief Minister PK Dhumal’s ‘Jalandhar connections.’

True to the adage that everything is fair in love and war (read politics), the Congress campaign seemed to be centred around CM Dhumal and his family’s alleged Punjab links, which, the party alleges were proving detrimental to state’s interests.

“The CM’s bias against state residents is clearly reflected in the policies and programme being formulated by the government which are tailored to the needs of the residents of the Punjab,” alleged Thakur Kaul Singh, president of the state unit of the Congress.

Kaul claimed that a strong resentment prevailed among residents against the ‘step-motherly’ treatment meted out to them. “The Dhumal government would have to pay a heavy price for ill-treating hill people,” he furthr said. In fact, the domicile status of Anurag Thakur, candidate from Hamirpur seat and CM’s son, has been in the eye of the storm for a long time.

Literature circulated by the Congress alleged Anurag had contended in the Punjab and Haryana High Court that he was a bonafide resident of Jalandhar.

Even Satya Pal Jain --- BJP’s Himachal in charge and party candidate from Chandigarh --- who was Anurag’s counsel had allegedly won the case on the plea that CM’s son was not a Himachal resident.

The Dhumal family has business interests, including a petrol station and an industry, in Jalandhar and Congress candidate from Hamirpur Narinder Thakur had made Anurag’s ‘non-Himachali’ status a major poll plank.

Former CM and party candidate from the Mandi seat Virbhadra Singh has also gone on record alleging the state government had proposed certain amendments in the Revenue Act to ease the purchase of agricultural land by outsiders (read Punjabis) in a bid to favour Punjab residents.

However, the BJP terms the allegations as borne out of the frustration in the Congress due to ‘unprecendented development during Dhumal’s 15-month regime.’

“The Congress is flogging a dead horse. The issue had been rejected by the state’s electorate more than once,” claimed state BJP president Jairam Thakur.