Chandigarh: The Jalandhar Poll has become a battle for the Congress government to prove its legitimacy to the Nation. In its bid to win the Chief Minister Beant Singh has converted the constituency into an armed camp where the security forces and police personnel occupy every street and alley of the constituency. They have made impossible for the opposition party candidates to move about freely and canvas support. The security forces are being used to further the interest of the government candidate, Umrao Singh. The complaints of the opposition party leaders to the election commission have fallen on deaf cars. The central government has perhaps instructed the election commission personnel to turn a blind eye to the goings on.

The district police superintendents in the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency have been given specific instructions to help the Congress. At several places uniformed policemen have been seen tearing down banners and posters of Opposition candidates.

Parkash Singh Badal told this correspondent, “some policemen came (6 me and said that they had been asked to remove our posters and banners, Their plea was that we had taken permission from the Municipal Corporation for putting up the party flags, etc.” Badal said that officials were just not available for the public. Most were actively involved in looking after the 36odd ministers, MPs and VIP politicians campaigning for the Congress.

Transport Minister Master Jagir Singh has issued instructions to the District Transport Officers (DTO’s) of all districts to requisition vehicles and sent them to Jalandhar. Not only another vehicle owners being denied thereat of the vehicles, are they also being forced to buy their own petrol.

The Congress has been blatantly violating the electoral code of conduct for the Jalandhar parliamentary seat by announcing huge grants, implementing new welfare schemes, misusing State machinery and laying several foundation stones in the constituency.

The campaign started a few days before polling is aimed at influencing voting trends.

Among those found guilty of luring voters by violating tis code are Chief Minister Beant Singh and his Ministerial colleagues. Returning Officer S. K.Kakkar’s name also figures on the scores of foundation stones of developmental projects laid recently by Singh and other ministers in the various Assembly segments that fall under this parliamentary constituency.

Though the party’s opponents have accused it of gross misuse of State machinery, investigations by The Pioneer a popular daily and the Tribune reveal that the scale of misuse is far greater than imagined.

On May 2, while campaigning for Urban Development Minister and Congress candidate for Jalandhar Umrao Singh, State Minister for Housing and Urban Development Jagjit Singh laid the foundation stone for metalling Outer Ring Road (Phirni) in Hirapur village near Kartarpur, The same day, he announced a bus service between Kartarpur, Tall Sajob. Fateh, Hitan, Hirapur, Banana and Jalandhar a longstanding demand of the people of the area. The bus has since started by playing on this route.

 

On a whirlwind tour of the Nakodar Assembly constituency from where Umrao Singh had won his Assembly seat in the February 1992 elections, Chief Minister Beant Singh on April 19 laid foundation stones for the construction of sports stadia, water works, village development schemes, etc in a dozen odd villages. Not only that, he also announced huge grants for the villages, giving the goby to the electoral code of conduct.

At Gohir, Beant Singh first laid the foundation stone for the water works adjoining the village gurdwara, promised people that roads and drains of the village would be cemented and then went on 10 lay the foundation stone of a sports stadium on the outskirts. The stone bears the name of Deputy Commissioner Jalandhar) S.K.Kakkar, who also happens to be Returning Officer for this poll, besides the name of the Panchayat.

However, Aalowal village has been the biggest beneficiary. Besides laying the foundation stone for a sports stadium in the name of Victoria Cross winner Major Parkash Singh, who hails from this village, the Chief Minister has given a check of Rs 6 lakh to the village for the construction of the stadium and a school in memory of the valiant soldier, Residents of Aalowai say that the lady sarpanch of this village, Alep Parkash Singh, openly acknowledged having received the check from Beant Singh.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has cancelled the Kalka Assembly by poll in Haryana, where Chief Minister Bhajan Lal had allegedly resorted to similar malpractices, The EC cancelled the poll on the basis of a complaint filed by the BJP, which accused Lal of inaugurating several schemes on April 6, and declaring grants worth Rs 16 crore with a View to influence voters. Lal’sson, Chander Mohan, was contesting the Kalka seat.

Beant desperate to win: In a desperate bid, Beant Singh has gone a step ahead to ensure that his Government wins this seat and establishes the much needed political legitimacy.

On May 9, Transport Minister Jagir Singh and Revenue Minister Jagmohan Singh Kang told a gathering at Government High School Partar Kalan, that a huge grant awaited their village once the poll was over. “We will come on May 20, a day after the polling, and announce the amount, but rest assured that if you vote for Umrao. Singh, the village will be adequately compensated, otherwise development work will suffer,” he said.

The sarpanch of Wadala Kalan village in Kapurthala Assembly constituency, Trilochan Singh, who. is also a Congress worker, said that no development work had been done in his village since the past five years, but local MLA Gulzar Singh and Umrao Singh had personally assured him that if Congress could get a majority of the 800 votes from the village, the incomplete stadium there would be built and roads improved. “We have to take grants from the ruling party, so lam convincing the villagers to vote for the Congress.”

 Umrao Singh is pitted against Akali Dal (Badal) candidate Kuldip Singh Wadala. The Akali Dal (Mann) candidate, (Justice) Ajit Singh, BJP candidate Balram Dass Tandon, the BSP and other party candidates will only cut into each other’s votes. With the split of the Akali vote between the Badal and Mann factions, the victory of the Congress is a almost foregone conclusion.

Article extracted from this publication >>  May 21, 1993