Voters remain undecided, refuse to open up in Ludhiana district

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, February 12

With almost a week left for the Punjab Assembly elections, voters still remain undecided and refuse to open up about their choice, a visit to various parts of the 14 Vidhan Sabha constituencies in Ludhiana district revealed.

While eight Assembly seats in the district were represented by the ruling Congress, two each were won by the principal opposition AAP, the SAD and the LIP.

One of the AAP’s legislator from Raikot, Jagtar Singh Jagga Hissowal, had recently joined the Congress, while Harvinder Singh Phoolka, who had won on the AAP ticket from Dakha in 2017, had quit from the Assembly citing “inaction” over sacrilege incident in October 2018, necessitating a by-election in October 2019, which brought back SAD’s Manpreet Singh Ayali.

Talking to a cross-section of young, old, urban and rural voters in Ludhiana, one of the major parts of the state’s Malwa region, located south to the Sutlej, which makes up a majority of the Punjab region consisting 12 of the total 23 districts, it came to fore that most of the people were upset over non-fulfillment of several promises made by the successive governments in the state, rising unemployment and dire state of farmers, trade and industry.

Besides, the anti-incumbency factor, the intense infighting and leadership crisis in the ruling Congress, and no party coming out with a vision to pull out the agrarian state of the “rising debt” and the rampant drug menace were also among the major issues that the voters talk about.

The failure of the present and the previous governments in taking the sacrilege and drug issues to their logical conclusion is also creating sentiments against the ruling and opposition parties as the polling day approaches near.

“Why should we vote at all? Who is bothered about us?” questioned an octogenarian farmer, Darbara Singh, at Sahnewal. He finds no party with a vision to take the state on the path of progress and ensure betterment of its people.

A trader in Khanna, Surinder Kumar, said the successive governments had failed to do any good. “Be it traders, industrialists, farmers, employees or students, all are left to fend for themselves,” he quipped.

“The failure of concrete action against drugs and sacrilege has cost the state dear,” a local religious leader, Udey Shanker, said.

An unemployed postgraduate woman, Ritika Joshi, rued: “Where are jobs for every family, which the Congress had promised in 2017. I am still looking for a suitable job despite doing MPhil in economics.”

“We were given false promise of giving smartphones, which never fulfilled,” another student, Atul Gupta, quipped.

A local industrialist, Poonam Singh, appreciated the single window system and incentives to the industry given by the present government.

“Ills of over six decades cannot be cured in five years. The Congress wants more time to take the state forward,” she asserted.

“We feel unsafe and insecure. When it comes to international, national or state affairs, BJP’s policies are the best,” said a homemaker from Samrala, Aprajita Punj.

A banker in Ludhiana Alka Sharma said: “We need to continue with reforms in economy introduced by the Narendra Modi-led Central government.”

“None of the traditional parties deserve our vote. We are fed up with them and will look for change,” said Raju, a coolie at the local railway station.

An auto-rickshaw driver, Sushil, quipped: “In the poll season, they promise moon but later they disappear, leaving us in the lurch.”

The voters’ mood and sentiment hinted at a five-cornered contest at most of the segments while some constituencies were witnessing even a direct or a triangular contest amid high hopes, big promises and long-pending demands.

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