NRIs take keen interest in counting of votes in Punjab

Our Correspondent

Mandi Ahmedgarh, March 10

Non-resident Indians (NRIs) from this part of Malwa showed keen interest in the counting of votes for the Punjab Assembly elections, which began at 8 am today.

Though the final outcome of almost all seats was cleared to them during initial hours of counting, more curious NRIs continued asking about various trends and leads till late in the evening.

Despite the clock time difference in various countries, residents continued receiving queries regarding candidates contesting the elections from various constituencies falling under Ludhiana and Malerkotla districts. Telephone calls, SMSes and social media sites were cited as popular modes of communication.

SAD (Amritsar) chief and Amargarh candidate Simranjit Singh Mann, Sanyukt Samaj Morcha president and Samrala candidate Balvir Singh Rajjewal, Congress candidate Gurkirat Singh Kotli (grandson of former Chief Minister Beant Singh) and Hond Chiller Action Committee activist Manvinder Singh Giaspura were among candidates whose fate majority of the NRIs wanted to know besides getting update about overall performance of Aam Aadmi Party candidates.

Investigations revealed that residents of the town and surrounding localities had started receiving calls about trends in Punjab Assembly election results early in the morning from their friends and relatives settled in various states of US, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and Australia.

Sikandar Singh Jartauli, who had recently returned from Canada, said he had received many calls from Punjabis settled in various segments of British Columbia. “As I received a call early in the morning I thought that my son had made a routine call. Later I came to know the call was to enquire about the fate of candidates,” said Sikandar Singh Jartauli.

Nirmal Singh, a social activist from Jandali Kalan village, said some of his relatives settled in New York had started enquiring about results early in the morning. Though there is a difference of almost 12 hours between the clocks of the two countries, the NRIs continued asking for the results till these were declared. —

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