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Neck and neck race between Cong, SAD as Dakha goes to poll today
What makes the battle further more thrilling is the fact that both the Congress and the SAD witnessed a large number of supporters during their rallies
The stage is set for a fierce contest between the ruling Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the Monday bypoll for Dakha assembly segment.
Even as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) have fielded their candidates, it is a neck and neck battle between the Congress and the Akali Dal as both the parties have left no stone unturned to woo the electorate in their days of canvassing.
The Dakha seat, which fell vacant after resignation of AAP’s HS Phoolka was accepted this year, has 1.8 lakh voters — 97,174 males and 86,739 females. The segment has 110 villages and one municipal council comprising 13 wards.
What makes the battle further more thrilling is the fact that both the Congress and the SAD witnessed a large number of supporters during their rallies.
Contesting from an assembly segment that could not be a Congress stronghold in the last three elections, state’s ruling party nominee Captain Sandeep Singh Sandhu, a parachute candidate, has banked on his close association with Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh.
In all his speeches, he was seen asking the public to vote for him as he would directly take their issues with the CM.
He has been urging the constituents to try him for two-and-a-half years. The CM had himself been asking people during his roadshow to vote for Sandhu, who he said was his right-hand man.
SAD’s Manpreet Singh Ayali, meanwhile, has been targeting Sandhu by calling him an outsider and telling people that he (Sandhu) will not be visible after polls.
He has been saying that the ruling Congress did nothing for the development of Punjab. Ayali also accused the Congress of implicating and arresting SAD-BJP workers just before the polls in active connivance with the police of other states.
While on the one hand, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh took out a roadshow in the constituency twice in the run-up to byelection; SAD president Sukhbir Badal and Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, on the other hand, also campaigned as many times in Dakha.
Not only the Badal couple, but senior Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia had also campaigned extensively during the bypoll. Works like setting up gyms, developing parks, building stadiums and cleaning village ponds were used as major poll planks during the campaigning for Ayali.
Major issues plaguing the Dakha constituency are drug menace and non-development of its villages.
While Ayali has been trying to woo the voters by showing them the upgraded infrastructure and playgrounds he got constructed during his tenure as Dakha MLA from 2012 to 2017, Sandhu has been rubbishing his claims of development.
Sandhu claims that while grounds have been constructed, there are no youth to play there as they are addicted to drugs.
Absence of a civil hospital and fire brigade besides poor connectivity to Ludhiana city remained the top agendas of the candidates in fray.
Even as Ludhiana’s Atam Nagar MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains took the lead from this segment in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year, he dedicated his time to Phagwara even though he has fielded a candidate (Sukhdev Singh) in Dakha. Both Ayali and Sandhu are not considering Bains as a threat, as they say he himself is not in the ring and has only fielded a candidate.
The struggling AAP has banked on the popularity of Bhagwant Mann in this bypoll as the leader is the only campaigner for the party for its candidate Aman Mohi.
In the parliamentary elections held in May this year, Simarjeet Singh Bains had taken the lead in Dakha with 44,938 votes followed by Congress leader Ravneet Singh Bittu, who got 43,664 votes from this segment.
In the 2017 assembly polls, HS Phoolka had secured 58,923 votes and was elected as the MLA after defeating Ayali, who got 54,754 votes.
In 2014, the Aam Aadmi Party entered the Punjab politics during the Lok Sabha elections and fielded Phoolka. He took the lead in Dakha by getting 62,359 votes, defeating SAD’s Ayali by 21, 623 votes and Congress’ Bittu by 32, 466 votes. While Bittu won the Ludhiana parliamentary seat, he trailed in the Dakha assembly segment.
In 2012, Congress’ Jassi Khangura had lost to SAD’s Manpreet Ayali by 16,388 votes.
