Here, it’s about Balakot’s impact on jobs, not polls

ATTARI/WAGAH: Just five kilometres from the Wagah border, where the crowd erupts every evening to hail the aggressive display of patriotism, residents living along the border with Pakistan are not feeling too euphoric. Set to vote on May 19 in the seventh and last phase, residents here are among those first to feel the heat of any escalation of tension between the two countries and decisions taken in its aftermath.
The way they see it, for the 50 villages along this belt, all governments have failed to fully appreciate the peculiar circumstances of the border villages. Given the significance of Amritsar, at his rally in Hoshiarpur last week, PM Modi, reminded the crowd about the Balakot air strikes to drive home the point that the government was determined in its battle against terrorism.
The BJP candidates from Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Khadoor Sahib that make up the Majha region of Punjab were present at the rally. Attari village is known to be home to the railway station that takes passengers to Lahore and its proximity to the border. Reach out to people and they tell you that the months following the Pulwama attack have been marked by anxiety. Coolies (porters) emerge to share that they made their living by loading goods at the border but after the 200% custom duty kicked in on goods from Pakistan porters claim to be living from day to day in the hope of finding some daily wage work.
Over 1,400 porters assigned temporary cards to work at the border are affected across villages, pointed Surinder Singh who is a second generation porter. In his late forties, his father also worked as a porter and his son in his early twenties also has a card meant for helpers. The border belt will be a critical constituency in the battle for Amritsar constituency since Punjab defied the Modi wave in 2014 evident in the fact that current finance minister Arun Jaitley fought the election from here but lost. Five years later the question is if the Modi factor can contribute to write the revival story of alliance partner Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal). BJP is contesting three seats – Amristar, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur and SAD (Badal) the remaining 10.
As far as the Congress is concerned it is less about its national perception and more of a test of the performance of chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. In this election, BJP has fielded a Sikh face and trusted BJP Union minister Hardeep Puri from here. A first time contender from the seat, Puri faces sitting Congress MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla.