NA-129 (Lahore): A swing constituency?

NA-129 is an interesting mix of urban and semi-urban localities in Lahore. Parts of former NA-127 and NA-128 were cobbled together, post the delimitation, to stalk out NA-129.

Going by the results of the previous election cycle, NA-129 can easily be considered a bastion of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, as both NA-127 and NA-128 were picked up by the party in 2013, Waheed Alam Khan and Afzal Khokhar, respectively.

Post the redrawing of the electoral unit, NA-129 now extends from Jail Road, Railway Colony, and Mugalpura to Ichra. It has a total of 762,000 voters and 15,000 union councils.

Some of the prominent communities housed here are the Rajputs, Arains, Sheikhs and Butts.

In general elections, large swings are rare. But NA-129 in Lahore could prove to be that exception. On one side of the ring is former national assembly speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and a staunch PML-N loyalist. While on the other end is Abdul Aleem Khan, a business tycoon in the PTI. This is not the first time both contenders will be facing off against each other. In October 2015, in a by-election, Sadiq trounced Khan, but with a thin margin of only 4,000 plus votes in another constituency, NA-122. However, the defeat is unlikely to have any impact on NA-129, which is a new area for both men.

Voters, Geo.tv, spoke to complain that the main concerns in the locality are bad sewerage, unclean drinking water, torn up roads and unemployment.