Problems aplenty, Shahkot voters keep cards close to their chests

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Jalandhar, February 17

Ravaged by the 2019 floods and struggle faced during the protest against farm laws, the agrarian voter of the Shahkot constituency is keeping its cards close to its chest.

Voterspeak

• Salwinder Singh Jania, a resident of Jania village, says: Sade bare koi na sochda. Apni hi sochde sare. (No one bothers about us. They care about themselves). The bandhs remain weakened. Illegal mining still goes on. Jadon har aande tan kothe dheh jande. (When it floods, houses are swept away). But no one bothers to fix these issues in time. For education our kids have to head to the city. The state of all three hospitals at Shahkot, Mehatpur and Lohian is bad. These problems haven’t been addressed for ages.”

Traditionally speaking

Shahkot had been a stronghold of the Akalis. SAD patriarch Ajit Singh Kohar won the seat consecutively for five times — in 1997, 2007, 2002, 2012 and 2017. Since 1977, Shahkot was won by the SAD candidates eight times —1977, 1980, 1985, 1997, 2002, 2007 (as Lohian consituency) and after delimitation as Shahkot in 2012 and 2017. The Congress won only twice here in 1992 and after delimitation in the 2018 bypoll. Hardev Singh Ladi Sherowalia of Congress received 82,745 votes while SAD’s Naib Singh Kohar (Bachittar Singh Kohar’s father) got 43,944 votes. AAP’s Rattan Singh Kakkar Kalan, who was then contesting his maiden poll, had received only 1,900 votes in 2018.

Electoral strength

Total voters – 1,81,336
Male – 93,399
Female – 87,936
Third gender – 1

There are a host of issues which have angered villagers. Farming is the backbone of Shahkot’s agrarian economy and majority of its voters are farmers. From the Congress, incumbent MLA Hardev Singh Ladi Sherowalia will contest again, the Akali Dal has fielded Kohar family scion Bachittar Kohar and the AAP has fielded last time’s candidate Rattan Singh Kakkar Kalan. Jagtar Singh Chandi is SSM candidate from here.

The rural constituency had been inclined to the Congress after the demise of the Akali stalwart Ajit Singh Kohar. His son Naib Kohar couldn’t find favour last time after the demise of the Akali stalwart. Kakkar Kalan fared poorly in the bypoll but there are rumours he could gain this time.

While one the one hand, the core voter of both Congress and Akalis will stay put, there is an anger against the traditional parties which have failed to address the key issues of people for the past many years.

A toll plaza near Dharmkot on which villagers paid Rs95 until year 2019-20 now charges Rs210 for passage. There are similar toll plazas at Gidderpindi, Mehatpur, all the way up to Jalandhar.

Similarly, there is also anger on the lack of work on the weak bandhs, which led to the area being devastated in the 2019 floods. Farmers say the government hasn’t spent any money strengthening the bandhs and in the eventuality of another flood, the damages would be severe. Lastly, the Shahkot villages haven’t been freed of sand mining. Villagers say politicians support mining rendering their villages even more vulnerable to the natural calamities. After the floods, for months villages got black water in fields, another issue which no one asked them about.