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Punjab's Losers' Roll Call
Poor show by
Left, BSP, and else is now a continuing story
WSN Network
 In
Punjab, which has nearly 30 per cent of Dalit population, it is a
pity that the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), ostensibly playing around
with the notion of identity politics of the Dalit domain, has failed
to make a significant dent. Its showing has been disastrous, so has
been the performance of the Left which should have been thriving in
a state where poor, agrarian domain masses are crying out to an
apathetic state for help.
Every single
candidate of the BSP and the Left lost his or her security deposit
in Punjab.
The Left’s debacle
was rather humiliating, as all of its three candidates collectively
polled a mere 56,626 votes, a serous comedown from 2004, when the
Communist Party of India (CPI) had given the Akalis a tough fight in
Bathinda. This election, the Left candidates were way behind the BSP
too,whose two candidates polled over 1 lakh votes each.
CPI’s Hardev Arshi
— once declared the “best parliamentarian in Punjab Assembly”—polled
just 20,020 votes in Bathinda, while the party nominee in Faridkot
(reserved) Kaushalya Bhaura got 19,459. Bhaura in 2004 was the
runner-up with 2.60 lakh votes, losing to SAD’s Paramjit Kaur
Gulshan.
 In
Anandpur Sahib, the CPM’s Mahan Singh had his security deposit
forfeited, having polled just 17,147 votes.
There were other
BSP candidates too who did better than the Left — Kewal Krishan,who
polled 1,18,088 votes in Anandpur Sahib; Sukhwinder Kumar with
1,03,320 votes in Hoshiarpur; and Surjit Singh with 93,592 votes in
Jalandhar.
All of them,
however, lost their deposits.Former Punjab Governor Lt Gen (retd)
B.K.N. Chhibber did the worst among the BSP candidates, getting just
11,108 votes in Amritsar. Chibber was a turncoat from the Congress
and hardly enjoys any good reputation as a politician.
CPI Punjab
secretary Jagroop Singh blamed the “complete polarisation of
politics in the state” for the Left’s loss. Admitting that the
party’s mass base has been eroded owing to its dependence on the
Congress in the past, he said there was a need for “serious
introspection”,which would take time.
Simranjit Singh
Mann, president of SAD (A), also lost the deposit with just 33,714
votes in Sangrur, way behind Lok Bhalai Party’s Balwant Singh
Ramoowalia, who got 1.15 lakh votes. However,Ramoowalia too had the
deposit forfeited,as a candidate is required to poll at least
one-sixth of the total votes cast to avoid that.
Mann, who once
registered a win with a record margin of 4.8 lakh votes in 1989, was
at the fifth spot this time, with even the BSP’s Mohammad
Jamil-ur-Rehman doing better than him with 69,943 votes.
20 May 2009
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