Voters see through namesake ploy

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, March 12

The ploy of fielding candidates’ namesakes — in an attempt to confuse voters — came a cropper. Most of “dummy” nominees forfeited their security deposit, thanks to the Election Commission’s initiative of pasting the photo of each contestant next to his or her poll symbol on the EVM.

Three namesakes of Kulbir Singh, the Congress candidate from Zira, polled only 121, 147 and 195 votes. His AAP rival Gurpreet Singh’s namesakes got just 198 and 331 votes. Kulbir won by a margin of over 23,000 votes.

Among the rivals of Gurpreet Singh Kangar (Congress) and Sikander Singh Maluka (SAD) from the Rampura Phul seat, three Gurpreets and one Sikander Singh were in the fray. However, these Independents fetched only 75, 84, 350 and 255 votes, respectively.

In Majitha, the two namesakes of Congress candidate Sukhjinder Raj Singh Lali Majithia got only 221 and 194 votes. In Guruharsahai, Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi (Congress) faced three “dummy” candidates who shared his name. The trio’s total number of votes was less than 1,000.

“This is an old practice, but voters of my constituency were watchful. They voted for the right Kulbir,” said the Congress candidate from Zira.

“Parties often rope in such namesakes and fund their election expenses. Their motive is to eat into the vote share of the top candidates,” said Kultar Singh Sandhwan, AAP’s winning candidate from Kotkapura.