Poll results get more bad news for Badal

With Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s men snapping at his heels, Akali Dal supremo Parkash Singh Badal suffered another jolt today, wit...

With Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s men snapping at his heels, Akali Dal supremo Parkash Singh Badal suffered another jolt today, with candidates supported by his party losing the post of sarpanch in both his and his in-laws’ village in the panchayat elections held on Sunday.

The Akali candidate at the former CM’s village, Badal, in Muktsar district was Gurdas Kaur. She is the wife of Joginder Singh, who is the younger brother of Narottam Singh Dhillon. Along with Badal, Dhillon is now in the Vigilance net. Gurdas Kaur lost to Congress’s Jaswinder Kaur, the wife of Randhir Singh. Incidentally, the latter is the munim of Badal’s cousin Mahesh Inder Singh, now with the Congress. Jaswinder Kaur also enjoyed the support of former sarpanch Sanjam Singh, who had left the Badal camp just two days before the polls.

Badal supporters could not hold ground in his in-laws’ village Chak Fateh Singh Wala in Bathinda district either. Here Akali candidate Pritam Kaur lost the post of sarpanch to Surinder Pal Kaur of the Congress by 205 votes.

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However, in village Bhai Harjoginder Nagar, which was earlier a part of Chak Fateh Singh Wala and later made a separate village by Badal during his regime, Badal supporter Gurdev Singh sneaked past, winning the post of sarpanch by 40 votes from Congress-supported candidate Bikker Singh.

The election was marked by high tension and drama all day long at Badal village yesterday with Akali and Congress supporters clashing over votes. When the tension reached a flashpoint, polling had to be stalled for over an hour. Extra time was given later after allegations of fake voting came to the fore. The counting too saw its share of excitement when Akali supporters said their votes were being rejected.

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