LAHORE, Feb 18: The bittersweet relationship between the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N came to fore here on Monday as their workers in most constituencies forged ‘alliances’ while in a few others they fell out.

Though the ‘warmth’ between the two top leaders of the PPP and the PML-N surged in the wake of the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto, it could not rise above their traditional rivalry.

Why at some places both the parties came together could be understood in the backdrop of their aversion to the PML-Q and the apprehensions they shared regarding massive rigging of the elections.

In Shahdara, people were witnessed chanting slogans eulogising the combination of arrow, the PPP symbol, and lion of the PML-N. They chanted ‘teer ney daraya, sher ney bhagaya’.

In NA-127, PML-N polling agent Amanat Ali had teamed up with PPP’s Muhammad Nasir against what they called casting of fake postal ballots for the PML-Q. They approached journalists at the Government High School, Township, and claimed to have witnessed unidentified people casting fake ballots.

PML-Q workers argued against doing anything about the allegations. Gathered on the spot, the PML-Q workers said: “Let bygones be bygones, we should move ahead with the process.”

In NA-I30, the workers of the PPP and the PML-N first fought with each other and later resorted to aerial firing. The row sparked after women workers of both the parties brought up rigging allegations against each other.

When the quarrelling workers saw the Dawn News capturing the whole episode, they took cameraman Muhammad Usman at gunpoint and made him destroy the tape.—Reporter