Shahkot bypoll: Cong ministers go door to door

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 17

As the countdown for the Shahkot bypoll has begun, at least five or six ministers of Punjab have been daily visiting the constituency surprising the residents of remote villages by knocking at their doors.

With 20-25 villages allotted to 12 ministers and MPs to be covered in the next 10 days, the ministers along with MLAs are not only spending time with the villagers, but also taking down notes of the demands being put forth by the villagers and reporting the same to the party’s local office on daily basis.

The residents of the constituency, who have always felt ignored, are feeling quite pampered. The ministers have been appeasing them in all possible ways. They are having refreshments at their places and even spending nights at the houses of local NRIs, supporting the party. Some ministers, who have a longer distance to travel back home, including Sukhjinder Randhawa and Gurpreet Singh Kangar, have reportedly already spent two nights in the constituency.

These demands include a fire brigade (a fire tender takes an hour to reach Shahkot from Jalandhar), a college in Shahkot and playgrounds for children. Residents have even been approaching ministers for individual works suhc as transfer of a kin who is a government employee, cancellation of FIRs, shifting of village pond, pending cases of numberdari and installation of power transformers.

Shahkot-based MC councillor Buta Singh Kalsi said, “Minister Sunder Sham Arora, MLA Rajinder Beri and former MLA Rajbans Rana have been taking turns to visit our area. The residents have been raising the issue of setting up of a college, owing to which the DPI (Colleges) even visited the constituency about 20 days back.”

Sukhraj Sosan, a Block Samiti member from Narangpur village, said, “About 600 votes were polled from our village in 2017, of which more than 300 went to AAP. Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla and Tarn Taran MLA Dr Dharambir Agnihotri have been going to the houses of these villagers.”

Meanwhile on Wednesday, SADleader Jagir Kaur held a meeting with about 500 Istri Akali Dal members. SAD chief Sukhbir Badal is scheduled to be here on Friday.