In Badal bastion, Akalis give tough fight to Cong

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, September 22

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) gave a tough fight to the ruling Congress in the zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections in the Badals’ home district, Muktsar. However, the Congress was poised to win a majority of the zila parishad seats.

At the time of filing of this report, the result of one of the 13 ZP seats (four each in Lambi and Gidderbaha, three in Muktsar, two in Malout) in the district was declared tonight. It went in favour of the Akali Dal. However, SAD candidates were reportedly trailing on 11 seats, some of them by narrow margins.

In the elections held five years ago, the SAD had won all seats (then 12) of the Muktsar zila parishad.

There was a neck-and-neck fight in Lambi, represented by Akali Dal patron and former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The SAD had won one ZP seat (Midda) and was leading on another in this segment.

The SAD won the Malout panchayat samiti elections, winning 13 seats out of 23. The Congress (eight seats) finished second, followed by the BJP and an Independent (one seat each). Malout is represented in the Vidhan Sabha by Congress MLA and Deputy Speaker Ajaib Singh Bhatti.

Tejinder Singh Middukhera, Akali Dal candidate from Killianwali zila parishad zone, was leading by about 1,100 votes after the completion of 12 rounds of counting. 

In Muktsar block, SAD candidate Manjinder Singh ‘Bittu’, son of Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh, was trailing Congress’ Simarjeet Singh ‘Bhina’ Brar, son of party’s former district president Gursant Singh Brar, by about 2,000 votes from Udekaran ZP zone. Bittu’s wife Lakhvir Kaur had won the zila parishad election last time.

In Gidderbaha, the Assembly constituency represented by former Indian Youth Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, all Congress candidates, including his close aide Narinder Singh Kaoni, were leading.

MK Aravind Kumar, Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer, Muktsar, said, “The counting process is manual, thus it is taking time. The situation is peaceful. The result of all seats will be declared officially on Sunday.”

In the Lambi panchayat samiti, the Akali Dal managed to win six seats out of 10 as per the results declared till tonight. In Muktsar, of the 15 seats whose results were declared, the Congress won 11 and the SAD four. In Gidderbaha, the Congress won 14 seats and the SAD three.

In the last zila parishad elections held during the SAD-BJP regime, five of the 10 Congress candidates had lost to the Akali candidates by more than 10,000 votes each, while two Akalis had been elected unopposed.