Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh has written to the Chief Election Commissioner of India, requesting him not to consider holding the Assembly elections in Punjab in more than a single phase.Expressing serious apprehensions of large-scale violence during the upcoming polls, Captain Amarinder said spreading the polling over two or three days, which the EC is reportedly mulling as per media reports, would be detrimental to free and fair elections in the state and suicidal for Punjab’s democratic polity.“The political atmosphere in Punjab has already been severely vitiated as a result of the goonda and mafia raj of the Badal government, which has unleashed a wave of terror and violence against the innocent people of the state. As the countdown to the polls begins, once the polling dates are announced, I seriously apprehend further aggravation of the situation,” Captain Amarinder said in his letter.Pointing out that he had already raised the issue of possible violence during the Punjab assembly polls, Captain Amarinder pointed out that even the EC had been expressing concern over the “free run that armed gangs and the large number of Proclaimed Offenders in the state are enjoying under the Badal rule.” He cited a media report to further point out that the EC had recently written to the Punjab police chief Suresh Arora seeking information on 47 gangsters and criminals who have escaped from jails in the past one year.
This, said Captain Amarinder, shows that the EC is also cognizant of the fact that criminals have a virtual free reign of Punjab under the Akali government led by Parkash Singh Badal. He further went on to note that the state DGP himself had admitted that as many as 52 armed gangs were on the loose in the state.Given the situation, containing violence even on a single polling day would be tough for the central forces, and if the voting is spread over two to three days, these gangs and goondas would have ample time to move from one constituency to another to coerce voters to cast their ballot in favour of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, thereby wreaking violence and mayhem across the state, said the Punjab Congress president.Captain Amarinder also referred to the incidents of communal violence, involving sacrilege of religious texts, to note that the atmosphere in the state was highly surcharged in the run-up to the polls. He further pointed out that the Assembly polls were conducted smoothly last time too, with just a one-day voting schedule, as that helped the EC maintain tight control and monitoring over the situation.