SAD Appeals To ECI To Register Case Against All Who “Rigged” The Jalandhar Lok Sabha By-poll
Chandigarh, May 11 (TNA) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday appealed to the Election Commission of India to register a case against all Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators and senior leaders who it alleged had rigged the Jalandhar parliamentary by-poll besides calling for action against Punjab chief electoral officer C Sibin as well as the Jalandhar deputy commissioner and the Jalandhar Rural SSP Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar for colluding with AAP to help its candidate in the by-poll.
Addressing a press conference here, former minister Bikram Singh Majithia told the ECI that Punjab chief electoral officer C Sibin was compromised and had wilfully not taken any action against AAP legislators and leaders. He said the reason for this was the fact that Sibin was being probed by the Vigilance department in the Rs 700 crore PSIDC plot bifurcation scam. “This is why Mr C Sibin has slept over complaints made by the opposition and has not ordered the arrest of any of the AAP legislators”.
Giving further details, Majithia said AAP legislators who had been caught in Jalandhar on the polling day or had been photographed there included Dalbir Singh Tong, Daljit Singh Grewal, Jasbir Sandhu, Gurpreet Gogi, Amolak Singh, Madan Lal Bagga and Ajay Gupta.
The SAD leader also said the lack of even a semblance of control on the election process by the chief electoral officer had encouraged AAP to indulge in goondaism and even take over booths.
The SAD leader also targeted the chief electoral officer for failing to take action against chief minister Bhagwant Mann who continued to appeal to voters to cast votes in favour of AAP on polling day.
“Videography inside booths was also not done and an AAP leader and Minister Inderbir Singh Nijher loyalist Gaurav Montu was even caught by SAD-BSP candidate Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi while in possession of seals meant for ballot boxes”.
He said SSP Mukhwinder Bhullar tried to prevail upon SAD workers to let Montu go free, indicating the entire administration was under the influence of the AAP government. He also cited the indifference of deputy commissioner Jaspreet Singh towards complaints filed by the opposition in this regard.
-- JMT