Dalits in Bakarpur exercise NOTA; outnumber other votes polled in 2 wards

Amarjot Kaur

Tribune News Service

Dera Bassi, January 2

On the New Year’s Eve, panchayat elections were held across 13,726 villages of Punjab to elect their respective sarpanches (village headman) and 83,831 panches (village council members). According to the official data of the Election Commission, 1.27 crore voters were eligible to cast their votes, but Dalit minorities comprising two wards (1 and 2) of Bakarpur village in Dera Bassi, located some 23 km from Chandigarh, made it the only village of the region to have voted for NOTA.

According to official records, the total number of voters in Ward No. 1 of the village was 61. Out of this, 46 turned up on the polling day and 26 voted for NOTA. Contesting for the post of sarpanch, Somnath garnered 19 votes, while Harpreet got only one. From Ward No. 2, Karamjit Singh contested against Nachhatar Singh. While Nachhatar failed to get any vote, Karamjit got 12. From a total of 65 eligible voters, 46 cast their vote. Out of this, 34 voted in favour of NOTA.

Digging for details when this correspondent reached Ward 1 of the village, she was guided to the residence of Gurpreet Singh by nonplussed village folk, who didn’t quite know what NOTA meant and said they were put off with elections because no one seemed interested in addressing their issues. On the condition of anonymity, they shared: “All these party people want to rule, no one cares about our problems. There’s only one primary school here. Water is contaminated from industrial waste from factories in Dera Bassi and there’s also employment crisis.”

At Singh’s residence, his wife said her husband had contested for the post of sarpanch and his name had been spelt wrongly in the official records as Harpreet Singh.

“Almost all people in this village are uneducated, daily-wage earners, belonging to the Scheduled Castes, like Ramdasis and Balmikis. My husband is not here right now, but Ranjit Kaur will be able to guide you. Her name was floated for the post of panch,” she said, escorting us to Ranjit’s house.

“We had asked people to cast their vote for NOTA and we voted in favour of it too,” said Ranjit, undaunted. More family members joined in and Gurdeep, a feisty young man, claimed that they weren’t given an election symbol until the last day.

“From our ward, we had floated three names, including mine, Nachhatar’s and Ranjit’s, for the post of panch and three for the post of sarpanch, including Gurpreet, Dharampal and Zail Singh. However, our forms were not accepted without any reason given to us. It was only on the polling day that we received our election symbols and even that news was given to us by a local reporter,” said Gurdeep.

“For the past 25 years, no elections have been held here and people have unanimously elected their representatives from this ward, the last one being Gurvinder Kaur Randhawa. How will people vote if they don’t have any candidates to vote for?” Ranjit asked.

In Ward No. 2, the rival candidate tells a different tale altogether. Karamjit Singh, who performs ‘jagrata’, claims that the dominant clout, comprising Ranjit Kaur, Gurpreet Singh, and Gurdeep Singh, had misguided the uneducated, village simpleton.

“Not only they have encroached upon the panchayat’s common land, but also they misguided the people of this village, telling them that NOTA was their election sign, when clearly it wasn’t. They are backed by former sarpanch Gurvinder Kaur Randhawa and her husband Paramjit Singh,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, Gurpreet and the gang deny all allegations, claiming that everyone in the village was given a common land. From Ward Nos 3, 4 and 5 of the village, Karam Singh was selected as the sarpanch, while Manjit Kaur, Harbans and Sita Rani as panches.

Fact file

According to official records, the total number of voters in Ward No. 1 of the village was 61. Out of this, 46 turned up on the polling day and 26 voted for NOTA. Contesting for the post of sarpanch, Somnath garnered 19 votes, while Harpreet got only one. From Ward No. 2, Karamjit Singh contested against Nachhatar Singh. While Nachhatar failed to get any vote, Karamjit got 12. From a total of 65 eligible voters, 46 cast their vote. Out of this, 34 voted in favour of NOTA.