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This is an archive article published on February 4, 2017
Punjab polls: For 3 seats, 6 lakh voters to decide fate of 34 candidates today
Three sitting MLAs to defend their seats, AAP entry makes it a three-cornered contest everywhere, voting starts at 726 polling booths at 8 am.
Polling officials check EVMs at Shivalik Public School in Mohali on Friday. (Kamleshwar Singh)
THE STAGE is set for polling in the three Assembly constituencies in Mohali district on Saturday where around six lakh voters will decide the fate of 34 candidates in the fray. Jagmohan Singh Kang, the sitting Congress MLA of Kharar, Balbir Singh Sidhu, the Congress MLA of Mohali, and N K Sharma, the Shiromani Akali Dal MLA of Dera Bassi, will be defending their seats in what is a three-cornered contest with the advent of the Aam Aadmi Party.
Tight security is in place for polling that will be held from 8 am to 5 pm. Of the three constituencies in Mohali district, two were carved out after delimitation prior to the Assembly elections in 2012. Before this, Mohali was part of Kharar constituency and Dera Bassi was part of Banur. Balbir Sidhu was then an MLA from Kharar. During the campaign, in which the Congress and AAP have been seeking votes for a “change”, both Sidhu and Kang have harped on how the SAD neglected their areas and hampered development work. They are now seeking votes to bring the Congress to power to ensure development.
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It was for the 2012 Assembly elections that Balbir Singh Sidhu was given a ticket to contest from Mohali. He polled 64,005 votes and defeated SAD candidate Balwant Singh Ramoowalia by a margin of 6,779 votes. This time, Sidhu is facing two first-timers. Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu, a former bureaucrat who has also remained deputy commissioner of Mohali, has been given the ticket by SAD. Son-in-law of senior Akali leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, he quit IAS to contest the election. The AAP has fielded Narinder Singh Shergill, an agriculturist and businessman.
While the AAP had earlier fielded Himmat Singh Shergill from Mohali, he was later shifted to Majithia. Deputy Chief Minister, Delhi, Manish Sisodia had campaigned for Shergill holding a public rally here. From the Congress, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu campaigned for Balbir Singh Sidhu.
In Kharar, Jagmohan Singh Kang had defeated Ujagar Singh of SAD by a slim margin of 6,779 votes in the 2012 election. This time Kang will also be facing two first-timers. The SAD chose not to give the ticket to Ujagar Singh that caused a rift in the party unit. Instead, the SAD has fielded realtor Ranjit Singh Gill. The AAP, however, reposed faith in veteran journalist Kanwar Sandhu, who is also chairman of the Punjab Dialogue Committee of the party.
In Dera Bassi, SAD MLA N K Sharma is facing a tough contest. Sharma had defeated Deepinder Singh Dhillon, who contested as an Independent candidate in the last Assembly elections, by a margin of 12,037 votes. While Sharma polled 63,285 votes, Dhillon got 51,248. Dhillon, who has been fielded by the Congress this time, had fallen out with the Congress leadership then and chose to contest independently. He managed to finish second.
Also in the fray from Dera Bassi is AAP’s Sarbjit Kaur, wife of senior SAD minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh who died in a car crash in 2009. The AAP is hoping to cash in on Capt Kanwaljit’s legacy as is evident from the posters carrying his pictures with that of party supremo Arvind Kejriwal and Sarbjit Kaur.
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