Punjab Assembly elections | Bhagwant Mann asks people to vote for AAP, many in Dhuri call for change
The Hindu
After the Aam Aadmi Party announced Bhagwant Mann as its Chief Minister candidate, the Dhuri Assembly seat has shot into limelight
At Benra village in Punjab’s Dhuri, as a group of residents eagerly awaits AAP’s chief ministerial face to stop by on his campaign trail, a budding singer sings for them, asking for votes for the party to “save” the State.
Outside the Benra Cooperative Agricultural Service Society office in the village, elderly male villagers sitting on a cemented floor and women, some along with kids, on a cotton carpet laid on the road listen to a local AAP leader slamming political rivals for “looting” the State over the last several years.
“ Oh Jatta, vote [Bhagwant] Mann nu pa deen, Je Punjab bachauna hai [farmer, vote for Bhagwant Mann if Punjab is to be saved],” the 19-year-old singer goes on, seeking to highlight corruption, rising debt and the drug menace in the State.
The election authorities are gearing up for the counting of votes cast in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 4. The Collectors and Election Officers of Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) districts said on May 23 (Thursday) that their teams were ready for the counting of votes.
Responding to the prolonged water scarcity, the residents of the area took to the streets in protest on Wednesday. The protest, which drew attention to their plight, stopped only after the intervention of the police. It was not until 1.30 p.m. that a 4000-litre tanker was finally delivered by BWSSB, providing relief to the water-starved residents.