Over 3K votes for Akali Dal in epicentre of sacrilege protests

FARIDKOT: Though the SAD-BJP candidate suffered an electoral debacle in the Bargari area where sacrilege and consequent police firing incidents were reported, Gulzar Singh Ranike managed to mark his presence in the Lok Sabha elections here.

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, May 24

Though the SAD-BJP candidate suffered an electoral debacle in the Bargari area where sacrilege and consequent police firing incidents were reported, Gulzar Singh Ranike managed to mark his presence in the Lok Sabha elections here.

In this cluster of seven villages, the epicentre of protests against the Akalis over three years, Ranike polled 3,296 votes against 6,535 votes of Mohammad Sadique of the Congress. AAP candidate Prof Sadhu Singh bagged 1,817 votes.

In Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village of Faridkot where ‘bir’ of the Guru Granth Sahib was stolen on June 1, 2015, and later, torn pages of this ‘bir’ were found outside a gurdwara in Bargari on October 12, 2015, the SAD(B) candidate got 164 votes against 291 votes of the Congress nominee. The AAP candidate polled 215 votes.

In Bargari, the SAD (B) bagged 1,597 votes, while the Congress polled 2,437 votes. With 435 votes, the AAP candidate stood third position in this epicentre of sacrilege incidents.

In Sarawan and Behbal Khurd villages of the Bargari area, the SAD (B) candidate got 520 and 324 votes, respectively. Gurjit Singh of Sarawan and Bhagwan Krishan Singh of Behbal Khurd village were killed in police firing at Behbal Kalan village on October 14, 2015.

The Congress candidate got 1,419 and 694 votes respectively in these villages. The AAP remained at the third position with 357 and 180 votes in Sarawan and Behbal Khurd, respectively.

In Behbal Kalan, Ranike finished third with 180 votes. In the village, the Congress polled 570 votes and AAP bagged 383 votes.

Behbal Kalan, Behbal Khurd, Burj Harika, Bargari, Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, Sarawan and Gurusar are seven village of the Jaito Assembly segment of the Faridkot parliamentary constituency. These villages are the epicentre of sacrilege and consequent police firing incident.

A total of 240 voters in these seven villages opted for NOTA. In Sarawan, 76 voters opted for NOTA, followed by Bargari (72), Behbal Khurd (29), Att Gurusar (20), Behbal Kalan (19), Burj Harika (14), Burj Jawahar Singh Wala (10).