JALANDHAR: The race for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by election has got off to a controversial start with opposition parties daily pounding the doors of the Election Commission 10 take cognizance of what they describe as blatant misuse of official machinery by the ruling Congress to further its poll prospects.
Going by the complaints of the opposition, even the kickoff stages of the race were fouled up by disputes over the allotment of symbols which affected Akalis the most. Returning officer S.K. Kakkar, it alleges, condoned a serious lapse of Congress candidate Umrao Singh in allotting him the “Hand” symbol. On the other hand, the Badal and Mann Akali candidates have been released party symbols on the condition that their contributed availability would be subject to the High Court verdict.
Akali Dal (Badal) office secretary Manmohan Singh says the CEC has been told how the Government imposes” curfew” when the Congress campaigners, led by Chief Minister Beant Singh, move in a caravan. Traffic is disrupted, be flagged pilot Gypsies misbehave with motorists and people are forced to stay away from the VIP route. Simranjit Singh Mann has already approached the CEC with a complaint against the returning officer. The BJP and the two factions of the Bahujan Samaj party are also making similar accusations against the ruling party.
Beant Singh and his colleagues laugh off these charges. The police explain that it cannot take chances with the security of ministers who have been asked to use private cars for campaigning for fear of the CEC’s code of conduct. All private vehicles are not bulletproof, it is pointed out.
Even as charges are traded, electioneering is expected to start picking up in the next few days. The main planks for the campaign have already been devised and are being propagated. Poll offices have been inaugurated and workers’ meetings held, there are 18 candidates in the field but the contest would be mainly among the Congress, Dal (Badal), Dal (Mann), BJP and the BSP factions identified by the names of Kanshi Ram and Ambedkar. The other candidates are independents.
The Congress is playing up the “normalcy” theme. People are being bombarded with rhetoric about how things improved after the Beant Singh government was installed. Villagers are being told they have been enabled to sleep on rooftops in summer after five years; they could not do this earlier for fear of militants. The theme was loud and clear at the May Day rally here recently, where the ruling party’s campaign was launched by the Chief Minister.
The BJP says the Congress cannot claim the entire credit for the changed situation, the opposition has made more sacrifices than the Congress for Punjab, according to K.L.Dhail, local BJP leader and the party’s covering candidate who has since withdrawn his papers. He asks:
“After normalcy what? It is mis-governance and corruption which has set in now.” He is of the view that a parliamentary election is not linked of local issues. His party is contesting the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat over national issues one of which is that the Congress has brought the country to the brink of disaster; The Akalis are making the repression and human rights violations as the main issues for their campaign. Manmohan Singh says Congress is trying to claim credit for the ending of a problem which has been its own creation, There is no rule of law in Punjab and life is as unsafe now as it was before, he alleges adding that if the Congress continues in power, it will recreate the problem if it suits the party politically,’ The two faction of the BSP describe all its Opponents as exploiters who must be defeated.
The people’s participation in the campaign i$ minimal at present and hence no. ten for the by election can be assessed, the issues being thrown up will engage | voters’ attention in the next fortnight when they give their verdict.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 7, 1993
