Bypolls over,power cuts back to haunt Punjab

A large part of the Jalalabad Assembly constituency,the high-profile seat from where former deputy chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal SAD president Sukhbir Badal contested the election,went without power for over four hours on Tuesday. The first interruption,for nearly three hours,was in the morning,followed by another round late in the afternoon.

Several parts of the Banur segment,a seat intensely contested by Jasjit Singh Bunny,son of late Capt Kanwaljit Singh,and Congress nominee Deepinder Dhillon,too,witnessed power disruption for nearly four hours. Parts of Zirakpur saw nearly three hours of power cuts. Some parts of Kahnuwan went in the dark for several hours from 1 am,hours after the polling ended.

Throughout the campaign,the Opposition Congress was vocal against this sop of 24-hour power supply and had even complained to the Election Commission. Congress MLA Jassi Khangura has been asserting that no power cut in some segments when the rest of the state was reeling under severe crisis,was aimed at winning over voters and a violation of the model code of conduct.