Marking presence: BSP sets up1K booths in Jalandhar

Aparna Banerji
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, May 19

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ensured a far greater presence than the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) by setting up over 1,000 polling booths in various areas of the Jalandhar constituency on Sunday.

While the booths of the Akali Dal and the Congress were present at almost every urban and rural area in the constituency, no AAP stations were found in a majority of the areas in the district.

Sources in AAP said, “No money was given to any of the persons to set up the booths. These things need monetary backing. Hence, very few booths were set up.”

Except some key locations such as Shahkot, Phillaur, Model Town and Bhargo Camp among others, AAP did not set up any booths in other areas. This was stark change from the 2014 elections, where the party had set up booths in almost all areas.

BSP candidate Balwinder Kumar said, “Barring around 300 of the over 1,800 booths in the constituency, we asserted our presence in most of the areas. Many booths were set up in Nakodar, Jalandhar Cantonment and Phillaur. We might have skipped about a 100 booths in the city and about 40-50 in Jalandhar central and as many in north.”

Meanwhile, AAP candidate Justice Zora Singh’s phone remained switched off soon after the voting.

Entire village backs Party

Muthadda Kalan village, where posters banning the entry of mainstream political parties were put up, officially extended its support to the BSP. Surprisingly, a joint booth was set up for the Congress and Akali Dal in the village, while a separate one was installed for the BSP. AAP had no booth here as well. BSP’s Balwinder Singh held a roadshow here, while Chaudhary Santokh Singh’s son Vikramjit Chaudhary was greeted with black flags here on Sunday.