In a bid to woo voters during the last days of campaigning, leaders of various political parties offered langars to youths and paid pensions to villagers. Langars of ice-cream, burgers, dosas and cold-drinks were organised for the people of several localites in the interiors of Jalandhar last night.Such langers are being organised to woo young voters. Party workers go to mohallas to make announcements after which people throng the stalls. ‘‘Last night, we were given a langar of ice-creams by the supporters of one Lok Sabha candidate, who belongs to one of the main parties in Jalandhar,’’ said Navdeep, a resident of Kot Kishan Chand Mohalla. ‘‘Open stalls of burgers were put up and youngsters were invited to eat free of cost,’’ said Neelam Sharma, a resident of Kishanpura.Cold drinks and dosa stalls were put up in Bastiyan, Mai Hiran Gate, Santokhpura, Qazi Mandi areas by the supporters of different parties. ‘‘Liqour was openly distributed in our mohalla,’’ said Radhe Shyam of Gandhi Camp.It is learnt that such langers will continue till tomorrow in different localites of the city. Meanwhile, Congress leaders reportedly wooed voters through pensions near Tarn Taran, saying “Aah 200 rupaye chuko, pension hi samjho tei apni votaan sarkar noon pao (Take Rs 200, consider the money as your pension and vote for us)”. Puro, a pensioner at village Panjwar, got to hear this when she reached the bungalow of one of the Congressmen here. Apart from the former block samiti president Gurbax Singh, other Congress panchayat members and the former Congress sarpanch Amar Singh were also present, she says. Prabhdeep Singh, one of the house members denies that any ‘pension’ was distributed. He agrees voters have to be wooed by popular means. Panjwar, about 40 km from Amritsar, is not only village in Tarn Taran constituency, where it happened today. In fact, money was also distributed at Malmohri, Bhojian, Panjwar Khurd, Panjwar Kalan and Chabbal.
