On his first visit to Haryana after the Lok Sabha elections, to address a poll rally in Ambala on Wednesday, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh received a rather lukewarm reception from the locals.

Women supporters were conspicuous by their absence, which could be attributed to the Karva Chauth festival, but the number of men was dismal too. They were perhaps tired of waiting for the leader who arrived nearly two hours late.

Irrespective of the reason, the lukewarm response certainly caused immense discomfort to the organisers. A section of local Congressmen tried to invoke the enthusiasm by a sudden burst of sloganeering, which irritated Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to such an extent that he took a pause from his speech and said,“Enough. I have seen your enthusiasm now. You better save this energy and zeal on the voting day.”

Kumari Selja had her own reason to convince the voters about the UPA Government’s special liking for Ambala. “Last time I was a minister of state. This time, I am a Union minister. I have been promoted. This shows that the UPA Government favours Ambala.”

After the customary detailing of the schemes launched during his tenure, the Chief Minister admitted to the gravity of the problem of power shortage. “I am aware of the power problem. This is something which we inherited from the previous Government. But I can assure that steps are being taken to redress the situation,” he said. 

The PM’s speech too had a mention of the sordid power situation. By 2012, he said, generation from four new power stations would start in the state.

... contd.