NRIs fly in to lend colour to campaign
LUDHIANA: With bypolls just 10 days away, NRIs have flown in to Dakha, their hometown, to campaign for their favourite candidate and are lending a festive colour to the proceedings. Of the four seats going to the polls on October 21, NRIs, in their numbers, are visible in Dakha and Phagwara.
Almost 500 NRIs from the US, the UK and Canada have come since the bypolls were announced. Their number is expected to touch 1,500 till the voting day. Nearly 20% of the population in Dakha is settled abroad. Around 40,000 people are estimated to have migrated.
DOOR-TO-DOOR, LIVE-STREAMING
NRIs supporting Congress candidate Capt Sandeep Sandhu are participating in door-to-door canvassing. Akali Dal candidate Manpreet Singh Ayali has been live-streaming his meetings, addressing NRIs in Calgary, Canada. Ayali is telling the NRIs not to desert the party like the last time, when they voted for the then AAP candidate, HS Phoolka, “You were ditched later,” he tells those watching.
A New York-based businessman Karamjit Dhaliwal donated a bus to the Congress and the decorated vehicle is going from village to village. “The bus is based on the US model of campaigning to drive home the message among people,” says Sandeep’s brother Captain Navneet Sandhu.
Ex-MLA and businessman Jassi Khangura, who has flown in from the UK, says the interest of the NRIs in these elections is unprecedented. “There are 40,000 NRIs from Dakha. Along with the polls, we get to participate in weddings and festivities,” he says.
Lok Insaaf Party chief Simarjeet Bains, who has fielded Sukhdev Singh as party nominee, said, “The response of NRIs is huge.”