BSP vote set to split in Adampur

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, February 14

Even as the Bahujan Samaj Party is in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal this time, its vote bank from the reserved Adampur seat is all set to split among three parties. Reason: Three candidates from this seat have been associated with the BSP in the past.

TRADITIONALLY SPEAKING

• The seat has been with the SAD for the past three terms. Tinu has won for two terms in 2017 and 2012 while Sarabjeet Makkar was the MLA here in 2007. The Congress has won from here just once in 2002, when Kanwaljit Lally won the elections.

Voterspeak

• The voters of the area are perturbed at the slow pace of construction of flyover past the town coming up on the ongoing widening of Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur highway. Says Bakshish Singh, a resident: “We have faced a lot of inconvenience due to the project. It’s difficult to visit the market area. The pace of the project has been too slow. It will be of no use to residents of the town.”
• Sant Singh, another resident of the city, said: “Our city lags much behind in terms of development. The grants were announced for us in the last two months. Most projects in the city have remained non-starter. We still do not know when the works on the bus stand upgradation and setting up of stadium will even get started.”

The SAD candidate, Pawan Tinu, had started his political career with the BSP and the Congress candidate from here, Sukhwinder Kotli, has been the BSP’s state general secretary. He had contested from here on the BSP ticket in 2012. Parshotam Heer, who is the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha candidate, too, had been associated with the BSP from Hoshiarpur.

While Heer has a relatively less base in the BSP in Adampur, Tinu is surely going to face the heat as Kotli has reportedly already eaten his vote bank. Kotli had contested from this seat as the BSP candidate in 2012 polling over 25,000 votes. Tinu is also set to lose 5000-8000 BJP cadre votes, which would have gone to him during his last two elections. He has won from here on SAD ticket in 2012 and 2017.

If Tinu is facing challenges, so is Kotli. The biggest threat is coming to him from ex-minister Mahinder S Kaypee, who is a relative of Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi and kept trying for ticket till the last minute on the last day of filing of his nomination papers. Even though Channi had visited Kaypee at his place this week, the latter has seemingly not got appeased.

Channi had visited Adampur to hold a rally in favour of Kotli last Friday and reminded the voters of the promises that he fulfilled, including the demand to give subdivision status to Adampur, besides other projects worth Rs 158 crore approved in his tenure as the CM. Kotli, who too is harping on 111 days of Channi’s regime and a promise of good educational facilities for children, is likely to face some loss in Alawalpur because of the Kaypee factor.

Kotli has a good support of ex-MLA Kanwaljit Lally, MC chief Darshan S Karwal and youth leader Ashwin Bhalla who are actively campaigning for him. Meanwhile, AAP candidate Jit Lal Bhatti, who is a retired cashier from a bank in Bhogpur, too, has been making gains on daily basis. A novice in politics, people are liking his style of mingling with the masses.