Booth No. 118 hogs limelight in Lambi Assembly segment

Archit Watts
Tribune News Service
Badal (Muktsar), May 19

Whenever there is any election in the state, polling booth No. 118 at Badal village in the Lambi Assembly segment gets special attention due to a long list of VIP voters.

A majority of the members of the Badal clan cast their votes at the booth. The list includes former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal and their children.

Apart from them, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and member of his family also exercise their franchise at the same booth.

Moreover, some other relatives of the Badal family, who are rarely seen in the village, also come to this booth on the polling day.

The status of this polling booth can be gauged from the fact that whole day one after the other swanky SUVs come to pick up and drop VIP voters here. Further, a large number of cops remain deployed here.

In addition, a number of journalists not just from Muktsar or Bathinda districts, but from Chandigarh and Delhi come here and OB vans of news channels remain stationed outside the polling booth for the whole day.

Senior police officers, including Bathinda IGP, also never miss to visit this polling booth.

Even on Sunday, MF Farooqui, IGP, Bathinda range, visited this polling booth, along with a large number of police personnel, to take stock of the situation.

Some residents are of the view that the village is mini Chandigarh and this polling booth is a testimony to it.

“Roads are beautified and a majority of the voters come from Chandigarh to polling booth No. 118 to cast their vote. They are registered as voters here, but reside in Chandigarh. The village presents a different picture every time during the elections,” they said.