The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today informed the State Election Commission (SEC) that the panchayat election process had been completely vitiated by the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and demanded justice for opposition candidates who had been prevented from filing their nomination papers as well as those whose nomination papers were rejected despite being in order.
Asserting that democracy was being murdered in Punjab, the SAD also demanded that senior officers be posted as Observers in all districts and that the entire election process be videographed in all booths. It also demanded strict action against AAP leaders as well as government officials who had failed to do their constitutional duty and had worked as henchmen of AAP ministers and legislators.
The SAD delegation led by Dr Daljit Singh Cheema and including N K Sharma, Arshdeep Kler, Harjit Bhullar and S S Walah, submitted a memorandum to State Election Commissioner Raj Kamal Chaudhary detailing how opposition candidates had been denied their right to contest the panchayat polls.
Giving details, Dr Cheema said on the appeal of the party, hundreds of candidates, whose nomination papers had been rejected or who were weeded out during scrutiny on false pretext, had approached the party’s legal cell with their complaints. While forwarding the complaints to the SEC, the SAD delegation urged the Commissioner to take immediate action in all the cases to restore people’s faith in democracy.
Giving specific instances, Dr Cheema said in Dera Bassi candidature of 91 persons for the post of Sarpanch and 204 for the post of Panch had been rejected. He said in the case of Kurli village, the entire opposition had withdrawn their candidature when all the nominations of opposition candidates for the post of Sarpanch had been rejected.
He also gave the example of Chhapar Chhiri village in Mohali where the nomination of a SC candidate Rajbir Kaur was rejected on the plea that she did not secure a NOC for her water bill when she did not have a water connection.
He also disclosed how in the case of Kotli Bhan Singh in Batala the papers of two candidates for the post of Sarpanch and 14 for the post of Panch had been rejected. Dr Cheema also disclosed another case of Dera Bassi where the papers of Panch Jaswinder Kaur were rejected because she had made a ramp to access her house when there was no such ramp on the ground.
SAD legal wing head Arshdeep Kler said a team of advocates of the Punjab and Haryana high court had noted down details of several persons who had approached the party with their grievances today. He said in case the SEC failed to provide any remedy, the party would approach the high court for justice.
Meanwhile the SAD delegation also brought to the notice of the SEC that it had failed to take any action vis a vis earlier complaints about injustice to opposition candidates. This included the intimidation and snatching of nomination papers by AAP goons from candidates from 15 villages in Moga, denial of receipts to candidates even after submission of their nominations and firing at opposition candidates.
It submitted to the SEC that people were disturbed at the complete lack of transparency in the election process and demanded prompt action to restore faith of Punjabis in the Election Commission.