Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Monday, May 5, 2014
AAP may have hurt BJP vote bank most: Survey
Manmeet Singh Gill
Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, May 4
The local satta bazar is favouring Congress candidate Capt Amarinder Singh over BJP’s Arun Jaitley, as is revealed by the betting rates. The satta rate for Amarinder is Rs 10/13.50 and for Jaitley Rs 10/24.
As per the satta rules, if a punter bets Rs 10 on Amarinder’s victory, he takes home Rs 13.50, if he wins. In case Jaitley wins, he takes home Rs 24 for a bet of Rs 10.
A survey by a political science professor at Guru Nanak Dev University shows that AAP may have damaged the BJP vote bank more than that of the Congress.
The survey, conducted by Assistant Professor Dr Harpreet Mangat and her student Sukhpreet Kaur, shows that first-time voters in the constituency preferred AAP over the Congress and the BJP.
Of the total first-time voters, 36.5 per cent voted for AAP, 28.04 per cent for the Congress and 16 per cent for the BJP.
The survey shows both the SAD and the BJP losing a larger number of votes in these Lok Sabha elections than during the 2012 Assembly poll.
“The Congress seems to have lost almost one-third of the votes while the BJP may have lost a whopping 62 per cent,” Mangat said.
She said 55 per cent of the voters who had earlier voted for the Congress may have opted for AAP this time.
The remaining 35 per cent may have opted for the BJP. The remaining 10 per cent may have opted for other parties, pressed the NOTA button or not voted at all.
The BJP seems to have lost 70 per cent of its votes to AAP and 30 per cent to the Congress. Mangat said it was a small sample survey and most of the voters interviewed were from urban areas. The scenario could be different in villages.
Source Link: http://www.tribuneindia.com
AAP leaders head to battlefield Varanasi
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 4
As the poll heat in Punjab got over on April 30, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) activists from the state have now left to campaign in other states, including Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal is fighting a high-decibel battle against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Varanasi.
Volunteers have also left for Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the hill states where the elections are to be held on May 7.
A team of volunteers has reportedly been sent from Sangrur to Hamirpur to campaign for AAP candidate Kamal Kant Batra, mother of martyr Capt Vikram Batra, awarded Param Vir Chakra posthumously for his valour in the 1999 Kargil War.
Bhagwant Mann, AAP candidate from Sangrur, said he was campaigning in Bazpur (Uttarakhand) for Balli Singh Cheema, candidate from Nainital. “Cheema’s songs played a pivotal role in building the movement in the 1990s for the creation of Uttarakhand. I have also campaigned in Haldwani, Nainital and adjoining areas. A large number of Punjabis live there,” said Mann.
Balli, a Hindi poet and an activist, has his roots in Punjab but his family is settled in Bazpur.
“I will next move for Amethi to campaign for AAP candidate Kumar Vishwas, who is contesting against Rahul Gandhi and Smriti Irani,” he said. From Amethi, he will go to Varanasi. AAP’s Bathinda candidate Jassi Jasraj is campaigning for Subhash Chander in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.
Already, a team of AAP volunteers led by Prof Manjit Singh and Kultar Singh Sandhwan has reached Varanasi.
“We have started campaigning for Kejriwal and response is beyond our expectations,” said Prof Manjit Singh, member of the AAP campaign committee in Punjab. “If required, we will call more volunteers from Punjab to Varanasi,” he said.
Source Link: http://www.tribuneindia.com
Saturday, May 3, 2014
ATTACK ON PARTY CANDIDATE
AAP’s Ambala candidate joins protest in Patiala
Panchkula, May 2 Surinder Pal Singh, AAP candidate from Ambala, expressing solidarity with Dr Dharamvir Gandhi, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate from Patiala who was injured in an attack on the polling day on April 30, joined the protesting party activists at Patiala.
SP Singh first joined the AAP volunteers at Zirakpur where they held a protest and then participated in a dharna being organised in Patiala seeking strict action against the perpetrators of violence.
The AAP leaders and workers have demanded registration of an FIR for attempt to murder against the attackers.
In a press note, Singh alleged that the police was biased towards the ruling party in Punjab and hence was not registering the FIR under appropriate sections.
He demanded strict action against the Superintendent of Patiala police for adopting delaying tactics in an effort to hush up the case. — TNS
Source Link: http://www.tribuneindia.com
AAP sting shows Akalis buying votes
Vote rate: Rs 500 each; Video has been shot in Kauni village in Gidderbaha area of Faridkot Lok Sabha segment
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service
Muktsar, May 2
The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Punjab unit has uploaded a 11.25 minute video on its official Facebook page showing some Akalis allegedly distributing money among the voters on the polling day.
The video, the party claims, has been shot in a village in Gidderbaha assembly constituency.
A few men are purportedly interacting with village residents at a house in Kauni village, asking them to cast their votes in the favour of scale (takkadi) and get Rs 500 for each vote. A policeman in uniform too can be spotted in the video.
Some people can be are heard saying, “Kaake nu de de. Sukhe nu vi dva de. Jihna di parchi hai oh lai lo. Eh Kala Singh di nooh hai. Ik vaar vote paa lo baad ch de dyaange. Ehna da naam likh lo. Tere kol 500 rupaye hai nhi. Ek vaar lyaayi. Takkdi te paa aayi. Gaddi ch chad. Chhad aaune haan. Hun vote paayi dhyaan naal. Parchi ton bina paise nahi milde… (Give money to Kaka, Sukha and others. She is Kala Singh’s daughter-in-law. Cast your vote in favour of scale (SAD symbol) and then we will pay Rs 500 to you. Note down their names).”
The man who shot the video had first made a telephonic complaint to the Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer, Muktsar, alleging that some supporters of SGPC member Navtej Singh Kauni were distributing money at Kauni village. Thereafter, a team headed by local SDM and several other officials went to the village to verify the facts, which has been also shown in the video.
In the video, Navtej Kauni has also been shown speaking to someone over the phone, saying, “Oh ji, SDM Gidderbaha sign karvaun aaya. (The SDM came for some signature).” He later hands over the phone to the Gidderbaha SDM, who says, “Complaint hoyi hai. CD banaayi hai kise ne, bheji hai. Dikha taa ohne audio, video. Ehna naal kar lo gall (Someone has prepared a CD and lodged a complaint).”
Later, someone says, “Chaar-panj bandeya ton likha lo ke either naa kise ne paise vande te naa hi litte (Get noted by four to five persons that no distribution of money took place here).”
When contacted, Gidderbaha SDM Hardeep Singh Dhaliwal said, “I went to Kauni village on the polling day and spent nearly an hour there to verify the facts, but the complainant who had shot the video did not turn up. He was called again, but failed. So, I have not seen the video. But, the villagers present there said they had not accepted any money from any political party or person.”
The SDM said, “Even Navtej Singh Kauni was called to give his statement as he was being accused of sending his supporters to bribe the voters.” On the other hand, the complainant, who did not wish to disclose his identity, said, “I was told to appear before the entire village and show the video, which was not possible.”
Sumail Singh, AAP’s convener of campaign committee in Punjab, said, “The video was provided to us by a resident of Gidderbaha, which was uploaded on the party’s Facebook page to make the people aware about what happened during the polls.” He said Prof Sadhu Singh, who contested from Faridkot parliamentary constituency, had been told to lodge a complaint with the Election Commission.
Kauni, when contacted, said, “I am in a meeting now. All I can say at the moment is I had no role in any incident of buying of votes.”
What’s in the video
- A few men, believed to be Akalis, are shown interacting with the residents at a house in Kauni village in Gidderbaha
- The Gidderbaha assembly segment is part of Faridkot Lok Sabha constituency
- There was a three-cornered contest between sitting MP Paramjit Kaur Gulshan (SAD), MLA Joginder Panjgrain (Congress) and Prof Sadhu Singh (AAP)
- The villagers, in the video, are asked to cast their votes in favour of scale (takkadi)
- In return, the villagers are assured Rs 500 for each vote; a policeman in uniform too can be spotted in the video
- During his Punjab tour, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal had urged his supporters to expose illegal means like use of money and liquor to influence voters
- The video has been uploaded on AAP’s official Facebook page
Source Link: http://www.tribuneindia.com
Thursday, May 1, 2014
AAP may play spoilsport, admits Congress
AICC Punjab in charge Shakeel Ahmed says the new party has made the elections hard to predict
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 30
As Punjab voted today in a crucial election to 13 parliamentary constituencies, the mood in the Congress camp in Delhi was upbeat with top leaders pinning a world of hope on the Akali Dal-BJP-ruled state. But one thing the Congress was constrained to admit despite all its enthusiasm about election results in Punjab is the emergence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the state and its potential role as a spoiler.
Speaking to The Tribune today, Shakeel Ahmed, Congress general secretary in charge of Punjab, admitted that AAP was a significant force in the state and was making the contest hard to predict in several seats.
“AAP is certainly a force to reckon with in Punjab. I have to admit that because I sensed it personally from my travels across the state during election campaigning. We are expecting a significant result in Punjab and if we get less than our expectations, AAP would have done us the damage. They are not only affecting urban votes in many areas but are also affecting the rural votes,” Shakeel said.
The Congress leaders are hoping to improve their 2009 tally when the party had bagged eight seats. “Anti-incumbency against the Akalis is huge and that gives us a formidable edge in the state. We are very hopeful but AAP’s gains would have to be watched,” he said, adding in a lighter note that Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP seems to be following him to every state.
Ahmed is also the Congress general secretary in charge of Delhi where AAP surprised everyone by emerging the second largest party in the 70-member state assembly, relegating the Congress to the third position with merely eight seats.
AAP has fielded candidates in all 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state. These include comedian-actor Bhagwant Mann in Sangrur, lawyer HS Phoolka in Ludhiana, cardiologist Dharamvir Gandhi in Patiala, Sucha Singh Chhotepur in Gurdaspur, eye surgeon Daljit Singh in Amritsar, Himmat Singh Shergill in Anandpur Sahib, Harinder Singh Khalsa in Fatehgarh Sahib, Sadhu Singh in Faridkot, Yamini Gomar from Hoshiarpur, Satnam Paul Kamboj in Ferozepur, Bhai Baldeep Singh from Khadoor Sahib, Jasraj Singh Longia from Bathinda and Jyoti Mann from Jalandhar.
Congress leaders privately admit that Mann, Chottepur, Phoolka, Gandhi, Baldeep Singh and Daljt Singh are impacting Congress results in the seats they are contesting.
In Sangrur, for instance, sitting Congress MP Vijay Inder Singla had to request for Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s rally at Barnala to brighten his prospects, with Bhagwant putting up a great fight here.
Source Link: http://www.tribuneindia.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)