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Assembly elections : Congress worries rise in Punjab

	February 12, 2007

With most opinion polls predicting a difficult time ahead for the Congress, the national party has a lot to worry about tomorrow’s polling (Feb. 13) for 115 seats of the 117-member Punjab Assembly. The party’s woes are compounded by the Mayawati factor as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded its candidates in all the constituencies going to the polls. Observers expect the BSP to cut into the dalit votes, which the Congress was hoping to garner.



The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP alliance is widely tipped to put up a strong show in line with the alliance’s performance in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, rather than the previous 2002 Assembly elections which had seen the Congress romping home with a comfortable majority. But the SAD-BJP, especially its BJP component, fear that their advantage on account of the BSP almost becoming a ‘third force’ in the state may be negated by Uma Bharti’s Bharatiya Janshakti Party fielding its candidates in 18 constituencies. Uma Bharti is also supporting Independent candidates in 11 constituencies, taking the tally to 29. Most of them are pitted against the BJP which is contesting 23 seats in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal.



Much to BJP’s discomfort, Uma Bharti has been busy campaigning intensively in the state with former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana, new working president of her party, following suit. BJP sources admit that every single vote which goes to the Bharatiya Janshakti Party will be from the BJP vote bank.



Normally dismissive of Uma Bharti’s potential to damage BJP beyond her home state Madhya Pradesh, BJP strategists talk in terms of her potential in Punjab now. However, they are quick to allege a clandestine deal between Bharti and the Congress. The alleged common strategy - a division of hardcore Hindu votes. Bharti who has not had much time to organise her state unit, has propped up a body headed by an erstwhile Congressman Pawan Valecha. A close relation of Haryana Industries Minister Lachchman Dass Arora, Valecha was initially an aspirant for a ticket from Jalalabad constituency in Ferozepur district under a seat-sharing deal with the Akali Dal. The BJP, however, pre-empted any such deal by the Akali Dal with its splinter group.



Uma Bharti in her public meetings stressed the point that the SAD-BJP combine is an alliance of opportunism. Speaking in Gurdaspur on Feb. 6 and Jalandhar on Feb. 7, she said the BJP had lost its ideology as it gave up most of its main issues including Uniform Civil Code and Art. 370. She said that the face of the BJP today is nothing but a poor photo copy of the Congress. Uma Bharti alleged that corruption and opportunism, ‘known trademarks’ of the Congress had creeped into the BJP.





Congress emphasis on peace, unity and development



During their campaigning in Punjab in support of Congress candidates, party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have been emphasising the party’s role in bringing peace and unity to the state, and said that the politics of religion, allegedly practised by the Akali Dal and the BJP, had been misused to stall development.



Addressing a public meeting in Amritsar on Feb. 7, Sonia Gandhi said the people of Punjab should defeat forces which were out to disturb peace in the state She said improvement of ties with Pakistan because of the policies pursued by the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre would benefit trade in the border state immensely. Touching upon the sacrifices made by the people of Punjab during the freedom struggle and in guarding the country’s borders, Sonia Gandhi said, several new schemes for dalits and other weaker sections have been launched for all round development of the state. Speaking in Phagwara, she said Punjab can become the No. 1 prosperous state in the country if the Congress gets another chance to continue its development.



Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, addressing a public meeting in Patiala on Feb. 6, attacked the Akali Dal, especially its chief, Prakash Singh Badal for inciting people by misusing religion and caste to hinder development. He said the Akalis were responsible for suicides by farmers, the poor fiscal health of Punjab and for promoting separatist and terrorist forces in a state once billed as the best in the country.



Speaking in Amritsar on Feb. 5, Dr. Manmohan Singh said, the presence of Congress governments, both at the Centre and in the state, boded well for Punjab which needed a greater push for development. He said, every effort should be made to prevent terrorism from propping up again. He said, people have to choose between development and progressive forces on the one hand and disruptive and fundamentalist forces on the other. Addressing a public meeting in Amritsar, which was also addressed by the Prime Minister, Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh said that through their retrogressive political programmes, especially the quest for the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, the Akalis had pushed Punjab back by at least a quarter of a century.





Opposition criticises Congress for raising terrorism ‘bogey’



Opposition parties in Punjab, include the Akali Dal and the CPI, have criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi for creating a fear psychosis during their election campaign in the state by raising the ‘bogey’ of terrorism and, reviving the spectre of violence and communal flare up. In a statement in Chandigarh, Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal said : “The Congress is up to its old tricks. Having realised that people had seen through the hollowness of the Chief Minister’s loud and tall claims on development in the State, the party had clearly decided to fall back on its old tactic of “divide and rule.”



Badal said that these leaders needed to be reminded that Punjab emerged as the most peaceful state in the country when the Akali-BJP combine was in power for five years between 1997 and 2002.



Talking to reporters, member of the National Executive of the CPI Joginder Dayal took strong exception to the statements of Dr. Singh, who is reported to have warned the people that terrorism could return to the State if, instead of the Congress, those forces that believed in communal and divisive ideologies were voted to power.



The veteran communist leader said that after raking up the issue, Dr. Singh owed an explanation to the nation, as to how dreaded terrorists were allowed to return to the country and go scot-free during the last five years when the Congress was at the helm.





Money power, goons at play



The Punjab Election Watch, an NGO, has found that in a mockery of the election process, 74 candidates of recognised parties in Punjab are those facing criminal charges as serious as murder, rape, kidnapping, cheating, sedition and even bigamy. A report by the NGO found that all political parties have put up candidates with criminal backgrounds. While Shiromani Akali Dal has fielded a maximum of 28 candidates (out of 94) with criminal cases pending against them, the Congress has 12 (out of 117) and CPI(M) has 5 (out of 14) such contestants in the fray.



Tarlochan Singh of BSP from Anandpur Sahib, Dhanwant Singh of BSP from Dhuri, Raghunath Sahai Puri of Congress from Sujanpur and Jagir Kaur of SAD from Bholath are the four politicians who have been charged with murder.



Moving over to crorepatis, both SAD and Congress have put up these candidates. The list is topped by Bibi Jagir Kaur whose net assets are over Rs.88 crore followed by Surjit Singh Rakhra of SAD with Rs. 54.65 crore. Amrinder Singh is third with Rs. 50.71 crore and SAD president Prakash Singh Badal at number 21 with Rs. 9.20 crore.



Of the 173 candidates, with assets more than Rs. 1 crore each, there are reported to be several candidates who do not have a PAN card which is mandatory for anybody who earns Rs. 1 lakh or more annually. Among the main parties, 32 candidates of the Congress, 20 of the Akali Dal, 77 of the BSP and 3 of the BJP do not have PAN cards.





Beas poll put off



In a setback for the ruling Congress, the Election Commission has deferred polling in the sensitive border constituency of Beas to March 11. The Commission took the decision on the ground that the state government and the police authorities had failed to provide an atmosphere conducive to the conduct of peaceful, free and fair election in the constituency. This comes in the wake of police failure to arrest Harpinder Gill alias Rajan, who is the brother of Beas MLA and Congress candidate Jasbir Singh Dimpa.



On Jan. 29, an SAD activist was allegedly shot dead by Congress workers. Moments later, TV footage showed Rajan strutting around with an AK 47 assault gun, loading and reloading it.



In the seven-page order, EC said: “No arrest of accused, specially of Rajan, brother of Dimpa, has raised serious questions about the impartiality and professionalism of the Punjab police.” In a subsequent observation, it said, “The state government and the Punjab Police have failed to create a peaceful atmosphere in the “12 Beas” constituency as may be conducive to the conduct of peaceful, free and fair elections.”





EC rejects Congress “courier” delay excuse



The Election Commission has refused to accept the Congress contention that courier error may have led to delay in submission of its campaigners’ list which could prove costly to some of its candidates for Assembly elections. The Congress party had earned the ire of the Commission after it failed to submit the list of leaders for its Punjab campaign to be filed by Jan. 25.



The party did submit the list later, but EC refused to accept the same as it arrived two days late. The Commission had made it clear that the expenses incurred on Congress leaders’ campaign for Assembly polls in the state would be distributed among candidates they introduced at a rally.



A candidate contesting the polls is expected to spend upto Rs. 10 lakh while the expense incurred by the party has no ceiling. A delegation of the Bharatiya Janata Party had met the three-member Commission demanding strict action against the Congress. It demanded parity since the other parties contesting elections in Punjab had submitted the lists in time.