Election campaign yet to pick up

.Although hardly three days are left for the election, campaigning so far has not picked up because the electorate are busy with paddy transplantation, which is their first priority. This is likely to affect the poll turnout.

Facing a lukewarm response from voters, the contesting candidates and their supporters (all outsiders) are doing door to door campaigning. A visit to some of the villages indicated that the people, who witnessed two Parliamentary elections and one Assembly election within a short span of time, were fed up with frequent elections. A cross-section of voters that Express Newsline spoke to said that all political parties should come on one platform and work out a system which would help in getting rid of elections altogether.

Local issues including water, electricity and sewerage are likely to dominate. Many voters feel that a majority will vote against the establishment. Barring a few villages, the fight will be between the Congress (and its allies) and the SAD-BJP.

Dera Bassi, represented by Punjab Finance Minister Capt. Kanwaljit Singh, has become a matter of prestige for the Akali-BJP combine.

A section of voters alleged that the government machinery was being used to help the Akali-BJP candidate. Officials supervising the election refuted these allegations as baseless . Interestingly, no banners and posters can be spotted in the entire village which indicates lack of interest in the poll amongst voters.