Poor infra: Pathetic roads, ill-maintained parks & Bhagtanwala dump trademark of this seat

Charanjit Singh Teja

Amritsar, February 14

Pathetic condition of roads, poor infrastructure, ill-maintained parks and stinking garbage dumping ground at Bhagtanwala (in pic right) are a few things that define Amritsar South constituency.

Densely populated localities on Sultanwind Road, Tarn Taran Road and the Bhagtanwala area have been facing sanitation and sewer issues.

Till 2017, the focus of all political parties, including the ruling Congress, was on shifting the dump outside the city. The Sanji Sangharsh Committee of residents was leading the demonstration and shifting of Bhagtanwala dumping ground out of the city formed the core issue during elections. This time, however, no political party is talking about it.

Criminal antecedents

• Out of 15 candidates, only two are facing criminal cases. Aam Adami Party’s Inderbir Singh Nijjar is facing a case under Sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 120B of the IPC. he was accused of cheating, forgery and making false documents
• Congress candidate Inderbir Singh Bolaria is facing cases under Sections 323, 324, 506, 148 and 149 of the IPC for causing a brawl and not maintaining social distancing and wearing mask

2017 results

• Inderbir Singh Bolaria of Cong polled 47,581 votes & won
• Inderbir Singh Nijjar of AAP polled 24,923 votes
• SAD-BJP candidate Gurpartap Singh Tikka, managed to get only 16,596 votes

The poor condition of roads is an issue this time.

Total 15 contestants are in the fray from different political parties, including seven Independents. According to political experts, candidates from four political parties — SAD, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Punjab Lok Congress — are in a four-cornered contest this time.

Sitting MLA (Congress) Inderbir Singh Bolaria’s family is dominating the political affairs of the constituency for the last 15 years. Raminder Singh Bolaria, a SAD leader, defeated Congress candidate Harjinder Singh Thekedar in 2007, but he died in 2008 hence necessitating a by-election. His son Inderbir Singh contested on a SAD ticket in 2008 bypoll and repeated the victory in 2012 and then in 2017 on a Congress ticket. Bolaria got funds from the government for the beautification of the outer circular road. However, major roads in the constituency are still in poor condition. He also failed to provide any solution to the Bhagtanwala dump.

After Bolaria shifted to the Congress, SAD didn’t have any strong candidate in the constituency in 2017. But this time’s SAD candidate Talbir Singh Gill is a close aide of Bikram Singh Majithia and giving a fight to Bolaria. SAD had announced his name as a candidate in 2018 and he was active in the constituency ever since. Talbir promises to recarpet and beautify all roads leading to Gurdwara Shaheedan and Darbar Sahib on a priority.

AAP candidate Inderbir Singh Nijjar, too, has a good reputation and polled 24,923 votes in the last election. He is getting a good support from residents.

Former MLA Harjinder Singh Thekedar recently shifted his loyalty from Congress to Captain Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress. His alliance partner BJP doesn’t have much base in the constituency, but Thekedar may damage the vote bank of the Congress.

Apart from this, Pritpal Singh is contesting from SAD (Amritsar/Mann), Phuljeet Singh Varpal from the Republican Party of India, Gurwinder Singh from Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar) and Ritesh Khanna from Right to Recall Party.

Candidates including Kuldeep Singh, Tarun Mehta, Ajay Bhatia, Love Kumar, Satbir Singh, Kudartpal Singh and Brahmjeet Singh are contesting as Independents.