Kartarpur: Swing voters hold key here

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, February 18

A substantial SC population, villages with proximity to Kapurthala’s drug belt and a burgeoning rural workforce sum up the dynamics of this reserved rural constituency in Jalandhar. Unemployment and drug problem are potent issues here. While many villages boast of newly constructed roads and a network of interlocking tiles, there is also a substantial amount of anger among voters over unfulfilled promises.

TRADITIONALLY SPEAKING

• The seat has traditionally been a Congress stronghold. It was won by Cong leader Chaudhary Jagjit Singh constinuously from 1980 to 2002 and by the SAD in the 2007 and 2012 elections. Chaudhary Surinder Singh is the incumbent MLA from here.

Voterspeak

• Harjinder Singh, sarpanch of the Dayalpur village, says, “We are voting for development this time. Half our village falls in Kartarpur and the other half is Bholath. Incumbent MLA Chaudhary Surinder Singh has promised us progress. He has also committed several development projects to us. We will be supporting him and Sukhpal Khaira.”
• Sarabjit Kaur, resident of the Sudana village, says, “Unemployment is a huge problem and for the past many years the incumbent Congress government hasn’t addressed the issues of contractual staff who have been key to carry out the Covid vaccination campaign. Link roads are yet to be made in many villages. Employees would want to witness change of guard in these elections.”

In many villages, the political inclinations are very pronounced as there are entire villages which lean towards the incumbent party and others have openly declared they will vote for change.

While incumbent MLA Congress stalwart Chaudhary Surinder Singh will contest again from the Congress and from the SAD-BSP alliance Balwinder Singh is contesting from here. The AAP has fielded former cop Balkar Singh. Meanwhile, the SSM has fielded green horn Rakesh Kumar.

In villages like Chaharkan, among others, there have been open protests against the incumbent MLA during his poll campaign. Villages which have opposed the incumbent MLA claim they were forgotten during the lock down and rations didn’t reach their homes. However, the villages which have declared open support for him, say they are confident of being backed by the Congress on development projects.

On the other hand, there are other villages which say no matter what the outcome of polls, they will vote for another alternative this year. In this context both the BSP candidate Balwinder Singh and AAP’s Balkar Singh are gaining popularity in certain pockets.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Balwinder Singh, then contesting from the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat, had received 2,04,783 votes.

A resident says, “People are tired of traditional parties, they need to see change. Many want another alternative, just to see what a new government does. Balwinder Singh is a decent canddiate. Those who have their minds made up for AAP aren’t even seeing the candidate, they say they’re voting for Bhagwant Mann.”