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SAD changing tack, to appoint panels on all polling booths in 2022
The SAD had registered a below-par performance in 2017 assembly polls, winning only 15 seats in the House of 117. With this new system, it hopes for more party workers contributing to its day-to-day functioning.
Chandigarh To boost its electoral prospects in next year’s assembly polls in Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), for the first time, has set up committees on all 22,615 polling booths in the state. Each member of the booth-level committee has been given charge of a set of 8-10 houses falling in their jurisdiction. The party’s top decision-making body, the Core Committee, had decided on this course correction a few months ago.
There were nearly 2 crore voters in Punjab, according to the updated electoral rolls prepared for 2019 general elections. The SAD’s move is a step ahead of the system of ‘Panna Pramukh’ (electoral roll in-charge) that the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), its former ally, participated.
The SAD had registered a below-par performance in 2017 assembly polls, winning only 15 seats in the House of 117. With this new system, it hopes for more party workers contributing to its day-to-day functioning.
Over the past two-three months, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal has met halqa in-charges to ensure that the relevant system gets in place. Every booth will have 6-15 workers, with their contact details recorded at the party office. The party has entered into a new pre-poll alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), with the farm stir proving to be a breaking-point with the BJP.
“We have completed the formation of booth level committees in almost all 117 constituencies. The process for allotting houses and the voters in these houses to booth workers has also started,” said a senior party leader, adding they aimed at keeping track of every single voter.
“In the previous system, party leaders and workers were in-charge of booths. They were, however, not made accountable for every house and voters registered at a particular booth,” said party’s general secretary and Adampur MLA Pawan Tinu, adding, “There is clarity now on each and every single booth, party workers and the set of voters he has to target.”
AGE-OLD CIRCLE SYSTEM TWEAKED
The SAD has changed its time-tested system of demarcating circles based on the jurisdiction of police stations in the state. “With this criteria, there was no uniformity in geographical area or the number of voters. We have fixed rhe number of voters to 25,000 in a circle,” said party spokesperson Charanjeet Singh Brar, who is also political secretary to Sukhbir.
There are 382 police stations in the state and previously there were these many circle in-charges. “As per the new system, there are at least 800 circles and same number of workers has been adjusted as heads of these circles. MLAs or halqa in-charges, who previously were supported by 2-3 circle heads, will now have a team of at least eight persons to assist them,” Brar added.
