25% votes on mind, parties out to woo slum, Ashiana residents

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, October 17

With two days remaining for the campaigning political parties are eyeing slum dwellers and voters living at Ashiana flats in the city, which has a sizeable chunk of voters.

According to information Panchkula constituency has about 2.08 lakh voters out of which 1.05 lakh are in urban Panchkula while more than 56,000 reside at 12 villages, including Saketri, Bhainsa Tibba, Kharag Mangoli, Bir Ghaggar, Majri, Devi Nagar, Maheshpur, Gatehpur, Abhaypur and Budhanpur, making more than 25 per cent of the total electorate. Besides 47,000 votes are in villages of Barwala block.

Most of these villages have become slums as migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had settled there for the past more than three decades. There are also three illegal colonies, including Gandhi Colony in Mansa Devi Complex and Madrasi Colony in Maheshpur village.

Besides the mainstream political parties like the Congress and the BJP, candidates of other parties, including the Indian National Lok Dal, Aam Aadmi Parti, Jannayak Janata Party and Swaraj India Party, have also made it a point to visit these colonies to garner votes by raking up issues like rehabilitation, providing safe drinking water, medical health facilities and proper hygiene.

There are 2,072 Ashiana flats located at Sector 20, 26, 28 and Abhaypur village in the Industrial Area, Phase I, built by the then Ambala MP Kumari Selja under the Central Government-sponsored Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

After Chander Mohan’s candidature from Panchkula was announced by the Congress, BJP leaders were worried as they feared that their vote share at Ashiana flats would shift to the Opposition as these dwellings were built during the Congress regime in Haryana as well as at the Centre.

Senior Congress leader Ravinder Rawal said Congress had built flats for slum dwellers. “People in these flats and other slums in the city know that only the Congress can resolve their issues,” he added.

A senior BJP leader on the condition of anonymity said the Congress would definitely have an edge in these areas as people were indebted towards the Opposition party, which had built these units for them. Still, they were trying hard to hold their vote share in these areas, he added.