CPI nominee gets 141 votes from party’s erstwhile stronghold

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, June 5

CPI nominee from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, Daswinder Kaur, garnered a paltry 141 votes from the Amritsar West segment, once a stronghold of the Communist Party in the holy city. In all, she had to be satisfied with 2,481 votes from the entire Amritsar seat.

Experts are of the view that the Left party lost its grip over the voters of the constituency after the winding up of major industrial units from the segment. Prominent Left leaders Satyapal Dang and Vimla Dang were based in the West segment.

Daswinder Kaur was contesting on a CPI ticket for the third consecutive time from Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency. In the 2019 General Elections, Daswinder Kaur got 16,335 votes (1.90 per cent) while in the 2017 by-election, she received 17,886 votes (1.76 per cent).

As the CPI’s support base mostly includes labour class and marginalised people, the party took up their issues. She along with other party leaders stressed on unemployment, uncontrolled inflation, rampant drug abuse and other issues. For the first time, she raised the matter of setting up rural-based industries, including MSMEs, for generating employment opportunities.

Industrialists recall that the peak of industry in Amritsar was from 1975 to 1995 and the period was marred by labourers’ stir. Lakhs of skilled and unskilled people were engaged in industry for earning their livelihood.

Kamal Dalmia, an industrialist, said now people from all sections of society, whether auto driver unions, leaders of political parties and members of civil society, were in favour of setting up industries. However, he regretted that when industries, including carpet weaving, fan manufacturing and others were tottering, no authority came out in their support.