Incomplete voters’ lists mess up Youth Congress polls

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 4

Amid too much confusion and technical problems, only 20 per cent polling took place on the first day of polling for the Punjab Youth Congress elections today.

Among urban voters, only those from the Jalandhar (Central) constituency had to cast their vote today. Of 4,296 voters, only 783 could cast their votes. In Adampur, only 525 of the 2,600 voters could cast their votes.

Since this time Jalandhar (urban) and Jalandhar (rural) presidents are to be appointed separately instead of one Jalandhar Lok Sabha candidate (like till the last year), polling was conducted separately today. For urban president, voting was held at the Congress Bhawan and for the rural president, it was held at Adampur.

The candidates rued that they had a difficult time in tracing voters from the lists provided to them yesterday. The list had candidate’s name, father name, bar code and ID proof (through which online membership had been done in February this year).

“We had no address, contact or even the ward number of the candidates to call them for voting. Further, over a 1,000 voters returned without being able to cast their votes as they did not bring along the correct ID with which they had got the registration done,” said a candidate.

The candidates also rued that since there was no practice, most candidates were not able to use the tabs for polling in a proper way.

“Five votes were to be cast by every candidate, including those in favour of the state president, state general secretary, district president, district general secretary and assembly president. Most of the voters came out of the polling centres totally confused and called the election process a complete mess up”, said the candidates.

While Rajesh Agnihotri, Angad Dutta and Deepak Khosla are contesting for the post of Jalandhar president, those who were in the fray for Jalandhar central president seat are Parveen Kumar and Lucky. For Adampur Assembly president post, Honey Joshi and Manvir Cheema are in the fray.

The candidates from the Jalandhar Cantonment and Jalandhar West areas are to cast their vote tomorrow. On Friday, the candidates from Jalandhar North will cast their votes. Polling for Nakodar and Phillaur is also slated in the next two days. Result of the elections are to be announced on Saturday.

No state candidate from Jalandhar

There are eight contestants in the fray for the post of the state president, none from Jalandhar or Kapurthala. For the post of state general secretary, there are 45 candidates in the fray, none again from Jalandhar or Kapurthala. Owing to age limit up to 35 years, most candidates who have contested earlier have crossed the eligibility criterion. Also, it was mandatory for those contesting for the state post to have contested at least once earlier in the district or the Assembly president’s post.