No big rallies, SAD and Congress canvass through ‘nukkad’ meetings
Every day, SAD and Congress candidates visit roughly 15 villages, going door to door to solicit votes.
On Sunday, Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu formally launched the campaign for Hardev Singh Ladi Sherowalia, the party’s nominee. Eleven more cabinet members will arrive in the area in the next day or two after being invited to camp at Shahkot till the polls.
Shahkot bypolls: No big rallies, SAD and Congress canvass through ‘nukkad’ meetings, reports @paramnarulahttps://t.co/2C3XYszU5j pic.twitter.com/OJVkoosTmR
— HT Punjab (@HTPunjab) May 13, 2018
During a public forum, Bittu predicted that Congress will win the Shahkot by-poll by a large majority.
Despite the fact that Ladi is embroiled in scandal after being arrested for illegal mining only hours after announcing his candidacy, winning the by-poll has become a prestige issue for Congress, which has ruled the state for over a year.
However, the party has not yet planned any rallies in which chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and state unit president Sunil Jakhar will speak. On the day Ladi filed his nomination papers, the party conducted a rally.
On the other hand, senior SAD leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia will begin campaigning on Monday for party candidate Naib Singh Kohar, the son of former MLA Ajit Singh Kohar, whose death prompted the poll. Majithia will speak to a gathering of young people in the constituency.
Sukhbir Singh Bada, the head of the SAD and a former deputy chief minister, would arrive in Shahkot on Wednesday and address 10 public gatherings every day till the elections.
Sukhbir, along with Naib and other SAD officials, would speak at gatherings zone by zone, according to the SAD plan. The constituency has been split into 42 zones by the SAD.
Meanwhile, Rattan Singh Kakkarkalan of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), joined by party co-president Balbir Singh and state assembly lawmaker Sukhpal Singh Khaira, has been organizing public gatherings in several areas to resurrect the party’s lost support.