AAP nominee pays 20,000 coins of 50 paise as security deposit
Doctors enter fray to boost health
ahmedabad — If Narendra Modi kept a tea vendor by his side to represent his own humble beginnings while filing his nomination papers for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections recently in Vadodara, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate for assembly by-polls in Gujarat paid his security deposit of Rs10,000 in an unusual way to symbolise his party’s preference for the man on the street.
Rohit Gor, AAP contsetant from the Abdasa assembly constituency of Kutch district where by-elections are to be held on April 30, and his three supporters landed at the collector’s office in Bhuj, each of them carrying a sack of 20,000 coins of 50 paise. kolkata — A clutch of physicians in West Bengal has plunged into the 2014 Lok Sabha elections as they see it as an opportunity to contribute to the health sector.
As many as 15 physicians, a few of them political greenhorns, are pitted in the poll battles in Bengal.
A common scene during the campaigning is that almost all the medicos in the running have to devote much time to their calling as voters seek answers to various health is- “Thanks to policies of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the common man has been of insignificant value just like the fate of the small change of 50 paise in these days of spiralling prices.
And Gor wanted to convey exactly that”, Gujarat AAP media in-charge Harshil Nayak told
He said Gor did not intend to harass government officials by depositing 20,000 coins but just wanted to make a statement in his own unique way that just as a 50-paise coin is discarded by people despite being a valid currency, the plight of the common man is no different.
Indeed, Gor and his friends went around several temples and mosques in the constituency for several days to collect 20,000 coins which were counted by election officials only after two and a half hours. — sues. The doctors are all smiles as they readily check up patients, prescribe medicines and even recommend diagnostic tests. Done with the “fruitful canvassing”, they move on to the next voter.
For obstetrician Mumtaz Sanghamita, the Trinamool Congress candidate fighting from the Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency, the transformation to the realm of politics is an extension of social service. “As doctors, we are doing a social service and when provided with a bigger opportunity, we can take that social service with us,” Sanghamita said.
Sanghamita, who actively participates in health camps in the state, believes new laws need to be introduced and existing legislations amended in the health sector. The Trinamool has fielded six doctor candidates while the Left Front has five. The BJP has three doctors on its list of candidates. —