Why defeat of Congress in Punjab
Tags: News Analysis Congress Punjab Amritsar Sidhu Singla Patiala Amrinder Ballot Badal Lambi SAD BJP Punjabiat Sikh Sukhbir Vote Bar girl PM Manmohan Lok Sabha Satta Cricket Shiromani Akali Dal Price Hike;
Battle of the ballot now as bullet and sword of the past; Abhi toa main jawan hoon; Balle-Balle of bar girls; Finance Minister slapped election official; Badal Vs Badal; In Satta Cong 41, SAD-BJP 74
Battle of the ballot now as bullet and sword of the past
Punjab assembly elections 2007 have recorded 71.97 percent polling highest after 1969. This is the healthy trend to strengthen the democracy. Even rain and cold could not block the voting. This indicates that people of Punjab decided to repeat the past tradition of changing the government in every election. Punjabi voters never give chance to any political party to govern the state for another term.
Punjabiat
Another healthy trend of this election is Punjabiat instead of Sikhism. Voters gave importance to Punjabiat to unite Sikh and Non-Sikh.
Abhi toa main jawan hoon
Badal senior was asked whether Sukhbir could become chief minister if the Akali Dal came back to power after Feb 13 assembly election. The octogenarian politician laughed at the question and said he was young enough to be chief minister again. He says "feels young enough" to take his fourth shot as Punjab chief minister. "I am still younger than most of these youngsters," Badal added in reply to a question after he cast his vote for the Punjab assembly election at his native village here. His 80th birthday was celebrated Dec 8 with a massive political rally by his party at Moga town.
Balle-Balle of bar girls to gather crowd for PM’s meeting
There was not much crowd in the public meeting in Punjab of first Sikh PM. Even though, Congress booked bar girls to dace for attracting the crowd.
'Balle-balle' has metamorphosed into 'bar-bar' in Punjab these days. And, doing some rip-roaring business during the campaigning for Punjab polls are bar dancers brought in by netas to liven up their loudspeaker-stage-'bhashan' routine. In fact, the bevy of women with loud make-up and ‘jhatkas’ has come from places as disparate as Mumbai, Bangalore, Nagpur and Nepal. There are also those streaming in from Uttarakhand, Delhi, Kolkata and Himachal Pradesh.
Finance Minister slapped election official
Punjab police has registered case against Finance Minister Surinder Kumar Singla Congress candiate for Amritsar Lok Sabha by-election on the charges of abused and slapping presiding officer in Majitha in Amritsr district. S.S.Dhaliwal presiding officer of booth number 26 said that Singla entered the booth, abused him and slapped him twice in the presence of other election staff without any provocation. he alleged that he was guiding an old voter about how to vote on EVM. This shows that Congress leaders were nervous to see the mood of voters.
Badal Vs Badal
There were badals in the Lambi as well as badals (cluds) on the sky on election day.
Two houses, a common wall, but a political divide - cousins Prakash Singh Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal and Maheshinder Singh Badal of the Congress are set to take on each other in the coming Punjab Assembly polls. In a battle that has reached and breached families, both Badals will both contesting from the Lambi seat
There was a "minor scuffle" on Election Day between the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) workers in the home constituency of SAD president Parkash Singh Badal in Lambi today. Meanwhile, Badal had already cast his vote in Lambi, where he is locked in a direct fight against his cousin Mahesh Inder Singh of Congress. Frustration of the opponents of Prakash Singh Badal and Sidhu is the indication of the defeat of Congress in current Punjab poll.
Satta men give Cong 41 seats, SAD-BJP 74
On Feb 12, 2007 before one day of the election day satta men gave 41 to Congress and 74 to SAD-BJP alliance. If someone places a bet of Rs 100 for the SAD-BJP alliance winning 74 or more seats, he will get Rs 200 in return. In case the SAD-BJP alliance tally is less than 41, he will lose his money.
While for cricket the bets are accepted by local bookies, election bets are being managed by some influential satta operators from Delhi and Mumbai. Sources having association with people who place bets revealed that for the Congress, the satta operators had fixed 40-43 seats. Betters will either place bets for less than 40 seats or 42 or more seats. Again if the Congress gets 40 or 42 seats, nobody will win and the money will go to the bookies.
The sources clarified that no manipulations were involved since the stakes were too high to leave any scope for maneuvering. “It is not possible for anyone to influence the satta market. It operates on its own, since nobody can risk setting wrong stakes which might lead to massive losses”, a source clarified.
Satta operators fix the rates and number of seats a party or alliance is going to win through their good connections. Bookies also take inputs from mediapersons who indicate trends about the chances of different political parties. Even the contesting parties take a regular feedback from the satta market, which they believe indicates credible trends.
Although the betting on elections is organised from Delhi and Mumbai only, the satta operators have their local connections who accept the bids. The network is said to be the same as that of cricket. Since in this type of betting the bets are made verbally, the credibility of the person placing these is essential. For this the satta operators are reportedly taking the services of local bookies, who are acting as commission agents.
Although the Congress is said to be having a clear edge at this stage according to satta operations, the situation keeps changing from time to time. The satta operators keep monitoring the situation and the rates keep varying, depending on the changing prospects of different parties.
Opposite to this following was the calculation of satta men in the past election. At that time the Congress was likely to win 62 or more seats, according to satta operators, while the Akali-BJP combine was placed far behind at less than 35 seats. The bids were reportedly being accepted in favor of the Congress. Unlike in cricket, the bets are evenly placed in the elections.
Past electoral record of both parties
In 2002 Congress won more than 65 against Akali-BJP of less than 45. But in 2004 Lok Sabha election the come out is opposite to this. If we calculate the assembly segments of Lok Sabha constituencies than we found winning seats about 80 for Akali-BJP combined and less than 35 for Congress. After Lok Sabha election the graph of Congress Govt in Punjab could not be up. So Congress defeat in this election is decided.
Low turn out in Patiala and Amritsar
There is a low turn out in the constituencies of Patiala and Amritsar where fate of CM Amrinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu has been closed in the electoral voting boxes. This shows that voters of these constituencies could not take this election seriously. They did not want to see Congress government again. They also felt Lok Sabha bye-election unnecessary.
Voters’ issues: price hike, graft
Development might be the poll plank of both the SAD-BJP and the Congress, but, for voters the price hike and corruption are still the main issues.
As reported by Tribune: “ We don’t know much about corruption as we have to put in day’s toil to make both ends meet, but, price hike keeps haunting the poor and the lower middle class people. I will try to vote for the candidate, who, will promise to do something concrete to check price hike. As for now, none of major political parties have been successful in containing spiralling prices,” said Ashok, a rickshaw-puller, in the Jalandhar (Central) constituency.
“When I, or for that matter people like me, cannot get any work done without greasing palms of politicians or officials, how we supposed to keep quiet about corruption. Poll promises apart, no one cares about the common man,” rued Mr Rajesh Gupta, the author of “The Art of Dying,” ,a book on the life of a Jalandhar-based businessman.
Mr. Kamlesh Duggal, the Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Guru Nanak Dev University, is of the view that though, the price hike is an issue, but corruption is not.
By Premendra Agrawal
www.newsanalysisindia.com/
Battle of the ballot now as bullet and sword of the past; Abhi toa main jawan hoon; Balle-Balle of bar girls; Finance Minister slapped election official; Badal Vs Badal; In Satta Cong 41, SAD-BJP 74
Battle of the ballot now as bullet and sword of the past
Punjab assembly elections 2007 have recorded 71.97 percent polling highest after 1969. This is the healthy trend to strengthen the democracy. Even rain and cold could not block the voting. This indicates that people of Punjab decided to repeat the past tradition of changing the government in every election. Punjabi voters never give chance to any political party to govern the state for another term.
Punjabiat
Another healthy trend of this election is Punjabiat instead of Sikhism. Voters gave importance to Punjabiat to unite Sikh and Non-Sikh.
Abhi toa main jawan hoon
Badal senior was asked whether Sukhbir could become chief minister if the Akali Dal came back to power after Feb 13 assembly election. The octogenarian politician laughed at the question and said he was young enough to be chief minister again. He says "feels young enough" to take his fourth shot as Punjab chief minister. "I am still younger than most of these youngsters," Badal added in reply to a question after he cast his vote for the Punjab assembly election at his native village here. His 80th birthday was celebrated Dec 8 with a massive political rally by his party at Moga town.
Balle-Balle of bar girls to gather crowd for PM’s meeting
There was not much crowd in the public meeting in Punjab of first Sikh PM. Even though, Congress booked bar girls to dace for attracting the crowd.
'Balle-balle' has metamorphosed into 'bar-bar' in Punjab these days. And, doing some rip-roaring business during the campaigning for Punjab polls are bar dancers brought in by netas to liven up their loudspeaker-stage-'bhashan' routine. In fact, the bevy of women with loud make-up and ‘jhatkas’ has come from places as disparate as Mumbai, Bangalore, Nagpur and Nepal. There are also those streaming in from Uttarakhand, Delhi, Kolkata and Himachal Pradesh.
Finance Minister slapped election official
Punjab police has registered case against Finance Minister Surinder Kumar Singla Congress candiate for Amritsar Lok Sabha by-election on the charges of abused and slapping presiding officer in Majitha in Amritsr district. S.S.Dhaliwal presiding officer of booth number 26 said that Singla entered the booth, abused him and slapped him twice in the presence of other election staff without any provocation. he alleged that he was guiding an old voter about how to vote on EVM. This shows that Congress leaders were nervous to see the mood of voters.
Badal Vs Badal
There were badals in the Lambi as well as badals (cluds) on the sky on election day.
Two houses, a common wall, but a political divide - cousins Prakash Singh Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal and Maheshinder Singh Badal of the Congress are set to take on each other in the coming Punjab Assembly polls. In a battle that has reached and breached families, both Badals will both contesting from the Lambi seat
There was a "minor scuffle" on Election Day between the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) workers in the home constituency of SAD president Parkash Singh Badal in Lambi today. Meanwhile, Badal had already cast his vote in Lambi, where he is locked in a direct fight against his cousin Mahesh Inder Singh of Congress. Frustration of the opponents of Prakash Singh Badal and Sidhu is the indication of the defeat of Congress in current Punjab poll.
Satta men give Cong 41 seats, SAD-BJP 74
On Feb 12, 2007 before one day of the election day satta men gave 41 to Congress and 74 to SAD-BJP alliance. If someone places a bet of Rs 100 for the SAD-BJP alliance winning 74 or more seats, he will get Rs 200 in return. In case the SAD-BJP alliance tally is less than 41, he will lose his money.
While for cricket the bets are accepted by local bookies, election bets are being managed by some influential satta operators from Delhi and Mumbai. Sources having association with people who place bets revealed that for the Congress, the satta operators had fixed 40-43 seats. Betters will either place bets for less than 40 seats or 42 or more seats. Again if the Congress gets 40 or 42 seats, nobody will win and the money will go to the bookies.
The sources clarified that no manipulations were involved since the stakes were too high to leave any scope for maneuvering. “It is not possible for anyone to influence the satta market. It operates on its own, since nobody can risk setting wrong stakes which might lead to massive losses”, a source clarified.
Satta operators fix the rates and number of seats a party or alliance is going to win through their good connections. Bookies also take inputs from mediapersons who indicate trends about the chances of different political parties. Even the contesting parties take a regular feedback from the satta market, which they believe indicates credible trends.
Although the betting on elections is organised from Delhi and Mumbai only, the satta operators have their local connections who accept the bids. The network is said to be the same as that of cricket. Since in this type of betting the bets are made verbally, the credibility of the person placing these is essential. For this the satta operators are reportedly taking the services of local bookies, who are acting as commission agents.
Although the Congress is said to be having a clear edge at this stage according to satta operations, the situation keeps changing from time to time. The satta operators keep monitoring the situation and the rates keep varying, depending on the changing prospects of different parties.
Opposite to this following was the calculation of satta men in the past election. At that time the Congress was likely to win 62 or more seats, according to satta operators, while the Akali-BJP combine was placed far behind at less than 35 seats. The bids were reportedly being accepted in favor of the Congress. Unlike in cricket, the bets are evenly placed in the elections.
Past electoral record of both parties
In 2002 Congress won more than 65 against Akali-BJP of less than 45. But in 2004 Lok Sabha election the come out is opposite to this. If we calculate the assembly segments of Lok Sabha constituencies than we found winning seats about 80 for Akali-BJP combined and less than 35 for Congress. After Lok Sabha election the graph of Congress Govt in Punjab could not be up. So Congress defeat in this election is decided.
Low turn out in Patiala and Amritsar
There is a low turn out in the constituencies of Patiala and Amritsar where fate of CM Amrinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu has been closed in the electoral voting boxes. This shows that voters of these constituencies could not take this election seriously. They did not want to see Congress government again. They also felt Lok Sabha bye-election unnecessary.
Voters’ issues: price hike, graft
Development might be the poll plank of both the SAD-BJP and the Congress, but, for voters the price hike and corruption are still the main issues.
As reported by Tribune: “ We don’t know much about corruption as we have to put in day’s toil to make both ends meet, but, price hike keeps haunting the poor and the lower middle class people. I will try to vote for the candidate, who, will promise to do something concrete to check price hike. As for now, none of major political parties have been successful in containing spiralling prices,” said Ashok, a rickshaw-puller, in the Jalandhar (Central) constituency.
“When I, or for that matter people like me, cannot get any work done without greasing palms of politicians or officials, how we supposed to keep quiet about corruption. Poll promises apart, no one cares about the common man,” rued Mr Rajesh Gupta, the author of “The Art of Dying,” ,a book on the life of a Jalandhar-based businessman.
Mr. Kamlesh Duggal, the Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Guru Nanak Dev University, is of the view that though, the price hike is an issue, but corruption is not.
By Premendra Agrawal
www.newsanalysisindia.com/
posted by Premendra Agrawal, India at 12:53 AM
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