Former Chief Minister and Congress candidate from Amritsar Capt Amarinder Singh today warned the Election Commission of India against possible mischief by the Akali-BJP leaders in Amritsar aimed at countermanding the counting there in a desperate bid to pre-empt, or at least delay, the outcome of the elections which by now everybody knows was going against it (the alliance).Capt Amarinder threatened that in case any such mischief is attempted by the Akali-BJP leaders particularly Anil Joshi and Bikram Singh Majithia, the two henchmen of the BJP candidate Arun Jaitely, on the day of counting, the Congress workers will go to any extent to counter that mischief. “Our party workers are already angry over what happened during the past few days and they will not take any time to hit back and hit hard in case of any provocation of which there are strong chances”, he warned.The former Chief Minister revealed that he had learnt that the ruling alliance was well aware of the fact that it was losing in Amritsar. “We have reports that they can resort to some mischief forcing the counting to be countermanded to postpone the obvious outcome, which we will not allow at any cost,” he said, adding, the apprehensions had further been strengthened after Jaitely’s unscheduled flying visit to Amritsar yesterday just three days prior to the counting.
Asking the Election Commission to deploy extra security in Amritsar, the senior Congress leader asserted that the onus will lie with it (the commission) only. He hoped that the Election Commission was also seized of the matter given the hypersensitive nature of the Amritsar parliamentary constituency and the probable electoral outcome there. He also asked the local officials not to come under any pressure from the state government and to perform their duty in a professional manner.