Cash-for-votes: Cops raid Bagga village, find nothing

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 26

An Akali bastion for 20 years is now being eyed by the ruling Congress! No wonder the stakes for both the parties are high in the Shahkot bypoll, scheduled for Monday. Almost the entire Punjab Council of Ministers remained on their toes at Shahkot to campaign for the party candidate, while Sukhbir Singh Badal, Akali Dal supremo, himself led his party campaign from the front.

With curtains coming down on the high- pitched campaign on Saturday, the spin doctors in both parties went in for “vote management”. From allegations of illicit liquor being smuggled to woo voters to money being distributed, the “vote management” tactics have been at full play since Friday evening. While the Akali Dal accused the Congress of distributing illicit liquor, the ruling party on Saturday got raids conducted on a house, where Akali leaders had gathered, in the hope of finding unaccounted cash, meant to be distributed to voters, but all in vain. These Akali leaders were reportedly “alerted” about the “raid”, allegedly by another Akali-turned-Congress leader.

The incident happened in Bagga village this afternoon, when Public Works and Information Technology Minister Vijay Inder Singla got a tip-off that Akali Dal MLA Kanwarjit Singh Rozy Barkandi and another leader Parambans Singh Romana were sitting in a house with unaccounted cash meant for distribution to a section of voters. Singla told The Tribune that he was at the road show when he got the tip-off and immediately called IG Naunihal Singh to send a police raiding party there.

“The raiding team, including videographers, went there but apparently nothing was found,” he said, hinting that since so many people were involved in arranging for the raid, the information could have been leaked to SAD leaders.

On the other hand, the Akali Dal accused the ruling party of using official machinery to malign them. “We were shocked that 25 odd police and civil administration officers swooped down on the house, where we were having lunch, and conducted a search operation. It is a shame that leaders of opposition parties are treated like criminals in a bid to harass us and defame us and the party on the eve of the elections,” Romana told The Tribune.

Of the total 1,72,008 votes in the Shahkot Assembly segment, the “vote management” is applied on the Rai Sikh community (22,000 votes), Balmiki community (33,000 votes) and Majibi Sikhs and Ravidassias (28,000 votes). Former Akali minister Ajit Singh Kohar, whose sudden death necessitated the bypoll, was reported to be adept at the management of these votes, which ensured his win for five terms.