clone or duplicate candidates matter in chattisgarh not in punjab

Namesake nominees fall flat
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 16
The namesake candidates fielded by certain candidates to hurt their political opponents failed to achieve the desired results in Punjab. Only a few of them managed some votes, a margin that could not have changed the fate of the winner or loser.

The strategyto confuse the voters, though, did prove fruitful in Chhattisgarh where 12 namessake candidates were in the fray from one constituency.

Mahasamund and Raipur constituencies in Chhattisgarh witnessed five Lakhan Sahus and 11 Chandu Sahus. The real Chandu Sahu of the BJP lost by a thin margin of about 12,000 votes whereas namesake Chandu Sahus collectively bagged almost 60,000 votes.

The most controversial namesake candidate in Punjab was fielded from the prestigious Bathinda constituency where the “Badal Bahu” Harsimrat Kaur, the SAD-BJP candidate, was facing a strong anti-incumbency wave. She was pitted against her husband Sukhbir Badal’s cousin Manpreet Badal of the Cong-PPP-CPI combine.

A “duplicate” Manpreet, who was never seen campaigning and his picture was missing from his election posters, secured 4,613 votes.

Though this was a lot more than the 598 votes Manpreet’s namesake had managed in Gidderbaha during the Assembly elections in 2012. The namesake Manpreet, however, failed to make the difference. Manpreet lost by about 20,000 votes.

Punjab witnessed the phenomenon in six of the 13 constituencies -- Amritsar, Bathinda, Sangrur, Faridkot, Ludhiana and Patiala. The state capital and the Union Territory Chandigarh also had a namesake candidate in the fray.

From Amritsar, an Independent candidate Amarinder Singh bagged 1,059 votes. He was the namesake of the Congress’ winning candidate Capt Amarinder Singh.

Another Independent, Arun Kumar, who shared the first name of SAD-BJP candidate’s Arun Jaitley got about 8,500 votes. Jaitley lost by over a lakh votes.

In Sangrur, Independent candidate Bhagwant Singh got 2,334 votes compared to the massive 5,33,237 votes polled by the winning candidate Bhagwant Mann of the AAP. Another Independent candidate from Sangrur, Bijender, whose name sounds like Congress nominee Vijay Inder Singla, got 5,395 votes. Vijay Inder stood third with 1.81 lakh votes.

In Faridkot, both Congress and the Akali candidates faced namesake candidates. Paramjit Kaur Gulshan (SAD-BJP) got 2.78 lakh votes while her namesake Paramjit Kaur polled about 1,100 votes. The Congress candidate Joginder Singh bagged 2.51 lakh votes (stood third) while his namesake Joginder Singh got about 2,600 votes.

Ludhiana had a candidate named ‘Bittu’ of the Republican Party of India, who polled 1,271 votes compared to the 2.98 lakh votes of the winning Congress nominee Ravneet Singh Bittu. Similarly, an independent candidate Simerjit Singh got almost 4,000 votes compared to 2.1 lakh votes polled by Simerjit Singh Bains, an Independent.

Patiala had an independent candidate Dharampal, who polled about 1,200 votes, while the winner Dr Dharamvir Gandhi had the victory margin of about 21,000 votes. Chandigarh had the Congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal, who bagged the second position with 1.21 lakh votes while his namesake Pawan Kumar got about 1,000 votes.
link: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140517/punjab.htm#4

Punjab CEO okay with use of cards with CM’s pic
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

A blue card for Atta scheme

Bathinda, March 13
The state election office does not see anything wrong in the Atta-Dal scheme blue cards bearing pictures of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

The government can continue to distribute subsidised ration to lakhs of beneficiaries under the scheme, said state Chief Election Officer (CEO) VK Singh. Stopping the scheme at this juncture would hit the intended beneficiaries, he said.

The state government had made hundreds of employees work round the clock to prepare and distribute the blue cards before the model code of conduct came into force. In Bathinda, where the Akali Dal is fighting a battle of prestige for re-election of MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, employees worked long, extra hours into the night to prepare the cards.

Though the state election office has ordered the removal of pictures of the Chief Minister and other leaders of the ruling combine from calendars, billboards or other places, the blue cards are an exception.

The Himachal Pradesh election office has banned ration cards carrying pictures of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

Chief Election Officer V K Singh told The Tribune that the scheme was launched before the election schedule was announced. “It involves lakhs of cards which can’t be stopped at this juncture. If we stop the scheme or withdraw the cards, the poor beneficiaries of subsidised ration will be affected,” he said.

In the case of Himachal Pradesh, he said he would verify the reports that the ration cards with pictures of politicians had been banned.

The election officer was responding to reports that the Akalis along with the employees of the Food and Supply Department were distributing wheat and pulses in poor localities here.

“We have not received any complaint for wrong distribution of ration so far. We have made it clear that new blue cards are banned,” he said.