Hectic canvassing takes toll on candidates, aides

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, February 5

Can contesting an election or participation in electioneering cause psychiatric problems? After talking to some contenders, their families, friends, party workers and some doctors, it is learnt that there has been an upsurge in the number of people seeking psychiatric treatment and tranquilisers.

The candidates met numerous people and spoke endlessly during hectic campaign besides downing endless cups of tea in the last one month. Most of their family members and close friends too spent sleepless nights.

A senior psychiatrist at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot, said some supporters had shown the symptoms of “reactive depression” and he prescribed them anti-anxiety medication.

If the end of polling has brought peace of mind to some, it has also heightened stress among those eagerly awaiting poll result, said the doctor.

After a month of extensive travel in his constituency, Mohammad Sadiq, Congress candidate from Jaitu, left for Ludhiana to stay with his family. “I was feeling tired and need some medical assistance also, so I came home,” he said. Gurdeep Singh Sekhon of AAP in Faridkot, a retired policeman, is busy weighing his chances.