Younger daughter-in-law wins by 33 votes in Barnala village

Bathinda: In the electoral battle between two sisters-in-law for the sarpanch’s post at Kothe Ishar Singh Wala village in Barnala district, the younger one came out victorious.
Younger sister-in-law Ravneet Kaur defeated the elder one, Harpreet Kaur, by 23 votes.
Ravneet polled 145 votes, while Harpreet got 112 votes. Both are married to first cousins, but the families are not on talking terms and support different parties.The small village has only 286 votes. Of these, 267 were cast. The 10 votes were rejected.
Ravneet married to Birinder Singh Zaildar, belongs to Shiromani Akali Dal and earlier during SAD-BJP government was elected as chairperson of Zila Parishad. Harpreet family is with the Congress.
Interestingly, for the last five terms no election was held in the village as there used to be unanimity and on three terms Ravneet’s husband Birinder was unanimously elected. It is after 25 years, that the election were held here.
As per villagers, the election was fiercely fought as both families were influential and worked very hard for the elections. Ravneet Kaur said that being sarpanch of the village her first priority will be to ensure development of the village despite being from the opposition party. My experience as zila parishad chairperson will come in handy in managing the affairs of the village.
A member of Harpreet Kaur camp on the condition of not to be named said we have lost the election but we are not dis-hearted as we belong to Congress we will keep on contributing in the development of the small village.