Oppn alleges police high-handedness

BATHINDA : Leaders of opposition political parties in Punjab on Saturday accused the Congress government of failing to ensure fair electioneering for the civic body polls, alleging highhandedness by police officials amid incidents of violence in the south Malwa districts and elsewhere.

The state’s 117 urban local bodies will go to the polls on Sunday. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) core committee member and former minister Sikander Singh Maluka said their workers are under pressure from the police administration.

“Election papers of several of Akali workers from the Rampura Phul assembly segment were rejected in a non-transparent manner. It was done at the behest of the ruling party,” he said. The Aam Aadmi Party’s Bathinda unit head Navdeep Singh Jeeda apprehended possibility of poll rigging for the municipal corporation, a part of the Bathinda assembly segment represented by finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal. “People with incomplete information are in the voters’ list,” he claimed.

It’s the BJP that faced the toughest challenge as its leaders in most parts of the state were not allowed to hold canvassing by the protesting union activists in the wake of the ongoing farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s agriculture laws. Even the publicity material of the party candidates was torn and damaged in various wards in Bathinda and adjoining districts. Party general secretary Subhash Sharma said the entire administrative and election machinery acted as agents of the state’s political dispensation. “Our state president Ashwani Sharma and party candidates in various municipalities were attacked and disallowed from hold election campaign,” said Sharma. Prof Satnam Singh, head of the political science department, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, said the timing of the election made it even more high-stake. “Stopping the BJP leaders or candidates from electioneering on any ground is undemocratic. It is a cause of worry,” said Singh.