AAP, SAD ACCUSE CONG OF STALLING THEIR NOMINATIONS

AAP TO CHALLENGE BAGHAPURANA POLL RESULTS IN HC, SAD SAYS CONGRESS ACTIVISTS SNATCHED NOMINATION PAPERS

FARIDKOT: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have blamed the ruling Congress for their failure in fielding candidates for the municipal council elections in Baghapurana that recently witnessed clashes.

The 15-member council got elected unopposed with the Congress capturing it.

In all, 20 candidates had filed their nominations for the 15 wards of the MC, with 19 of them from the Congress and one from Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), after the cadres of the three parties came to blows at the MC office during the process of filing the nominations.

SAD’S Pawan Kumar, Harmel Singh, Jarnail Singh and Shiv Kumar were injured after they were allegedly assaulted by the Congressmen outside the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM ) office during the filing of nominations, as per an FIR lodged against “unidentified Congressmen” on Wednesday last.

Another FIR was lodged against 78 SAD leaders, led by ex-minister Tota Singh and ex-mlas Mantar Brar and SR Kaler, for allegedly disrupting traffic on a highway when they were demanding action against the “violent Congressmen”.

“We will challenge the MC poll results in the Punjab and Haryana high court and have written to the state election commission to countermand the elections,” AAP’S local leader Gurvinder Singh Kang told HT. Kang had unsuccessfully contested the February 2017 assembly polls.

“We had finalised the candidates for all 15 wards but were prevented by the Congress musclemen from entering the SDM office and no police officer came to our rescue,” said Kang, who was among the aspirants for the MC polls.

Tota Singh said that it was under pressure from the Congress that the administration deliberately delayed in issuing the ‘no objection certificates’ to SAD candidates for filing of nominations. The SAD had also lodged a complaint with the state election commission, accusing Cong activists of snatching nomination papers of rivals.

Meanwhile, state election commissioner Jagpal Singh Sandhu was not available for comments, despite repeated phone calls by HT.