Worth their weight in coins

The ongoing campaign for the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab and the by-election for Amritsar Parliamentary seat have caused a scarcity of coins in the market.

It may sound strange but the penchant of people for weighing their favourite leaders with coins has resulted in the disappearance of coins, especially of Re 1, Rs 2 and Rs 5 denomination, from the market.

Leaders, accompanied by a large number of their associates, go to their constituencies with 'dhols' (traditional drums) for support in the elections in which reputation of several big names of the state, including Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, President, Shiromani Akali Dal, Navjot Singh Sidhu, former MP, and Surinder Singla, finance minister are at stake.

Activists of various parties and admirers of candidates pool money among themselves and then weigh their favourite leaders against that money.

Subsequently, that amount is contributed to the party fund to help candidates financially.

Septuagenarian Suraj Prakash, who has been dealing in providing coins, in the local market, says that demand of coins have risen manifold in the last couple of days.

He has received several orders to provide coins in bulk. Sounding upbeat he says that he is not facing any kind of trouble to fulfill the demand as there is abundant supply of coins.

Almost all contenders for assembly seats are being weighed against coins. Their photographs of being weighed are repeatedly appearing on pages of local newspapers.

Shastri Market Cloth Merchant Association recently weighed Congress candidate from Amritsar north Jugal Kishore Sharma.

Suman Kapoor, member of the Association, said members of the association contributed coins and handed over to the leader after weighing him.