Jalandhar, January 21
Within a day of publication of a news item about blatant violation of election model code of conduct by almost all political parties, Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Returning Officer, Mr A. Venu Prasad, today visited several areas of the city for enforcing code of conduct.

While banners and buntings of various political parties were removed from different parts, two rickshaws playing loudspeakers in favour of a candidate without permission were also confiscated during his visit.

Mr A.Venu Prasad was accompanied by Additional Deputy Commissioner S.S. Mrar and Municipal Council Joint Commissioner Gurpreet Kaur Sapra and MC staff.

The team led by the DRO visited several areas, including Main Hiran Gate, Neelan Mahal, Patel Chowk, Buta Mandi and Bus Stand.

Two rickshaws playing loudspeakers were confiscated from Neela Mahal and Mai Hiran Gate.

They were campaigning for the ruling party candidate from Jalandhar North constituency. Similarly, banners, buntings and flags were removed from various public places, including Patel Chowk, Neela Mahal and Mai Hiran Gate.

The DRO asked all the political parties to follow model code of conduct and avoid defacing public and private properties during campaigning.

Mr A.Venu Prasad also asked the PCR teams of the district police to keep a watch about the violation of model code of conducts in their respective beats.

The ruling Congress and the SAD-BJP combine have one thing in common, violation of the model code of conduct.

In the news item carried in The Tribune on Sunday, it was stated that almost no political party was lagging behind in violating the code by putting up banners and buntings on public places and tying party flags and buntings with electric and telecom poles.

Kapurthala, January 21
Congress MP Rana Gurjit Singh has ‘threatened’ SDM Karnail Singh that if the votes of several Congress workers, whose names were allegedly not included in the electoral list, were not prepared, he would have to face consequences for the same.

Rana used `threatening’ language in the presence of several persons, including some mediapersons yesterday. The Jalandhar MP alleged that the names of several Congress workers had not been included in the list.

Earlier, he and several Congress workers staged a dharna outside the office of the SDM, who is also the Returning Officer at Kapurthala from where Rana’s sister-in-law Sukhjinder Kaur Rana is retrying her luck.

Interestingly, when contacted, the SDM did not say anything on record. He said if he was threatened, he would report that to his seniors.

On the contrary, the SAD candidate from Kapurthala, Mr Raghubir Singh, had alleged two days back that several bogus votes had been prepared at Mandi Janj Ghar at the behest of ruling Congress party in connivance with the Returning Officer of the constituency.

In a formal complaint submitted to the SDM, Mr Raghubir Singh alleged that at least 500 of the 600 bogus votes were of the persons who were working in Rana Gurjit Singh’s mills located outside Kapurthala.

He alleged that these bogus votes were being prepared for providing benefit to Rana’s sister-in-law Sukhjinder Kaur Rana, who is contesting from Kapurthala on the Congress ticket. However, the DC-cum-DRO, Mr Raminder Singh, termed the allegations as baseless. He said he had visited booth numbers 48, 49 and 50 and found that no bogus votes had been prepared.

Batala, January 21
With February 13 drawing near, two major political groups, one led by Mr. Ashwani Sekhri, a Congress candidate and other led by Mr. Jagdish sahni, SAD-BJP candidate, have started vigorous electioneering in the city.

Both groups were campaigning on the main roads of the city and were also doing a lot to win back annoyed workers.

In this context, both the groups led road shows here today. The presence of the disgruntled groups of councillors in the road show of Mr. Ashwani Sekhri gave a big boost to his election campaign while the road show organised by Mr Jagdish Sahni got a shot in arm when some Congress leaders joined the SAD-BJP group.

Mr Sahni honoured them by presenting ‘saropas’. The supporters and organisers of both the groups were seen canvassing door to door to woo the voters.

Phagwara, January 21
Six persons, including two women, sustained serious injuries in two separate incidents of clashes at marriage palaces here this afternoon.

In a first such incident at the City Palace on the Palahi Road, five persons were injured, one of them seriously, in a clash between members of a marriage party and owners of the DJ group over not tuning the music to their liking. The situation took a ugly turn when one member of the marriage party attacked a DJ group artiste with sharp-edged weapons.

In the ensuing clash left five persons, including three of the marriage party and two of the DJ group, receiving serious injuries. All the injured were admitted to the Civil Hospital.

They were identified as Amandeep Kaur, Balwinder Kaur, Jaspal Singh, Surinder Pal and Krishan Lal. In the second incident at Amar Palace, some unidentified miscreants attacked members of the marriage party, inflicting injuries on Guru Datt. 

Banga, January 21
In an interesting incident here, a wife caught her husband while he was getting married again.

Rajdeep Kaur, a government teacher was married to Basant Singh of Naura village about seven years ago. She has two sons from him.

Due to alleged persistent dowry demands from her in-laws, she had left the house and was staying separately. The couple, however, had not separated legally. She is serving in the government school at Naura village.

Yesterday, while coming on duty, she found the house of her in-laws locked. On inquiry, some villagers told that her husband had gone to Mahilpur for second marriage.

Shocked, Rajdeep Kaur rushed to Garhshanker.Taking her brother along, she rushed to the place her husband was marrying again. However, by the time she reached the destination, the second marriage of her husband had been solemnised with Preet Kaur.

Rajdeep reported the matter to the police. The police booked her husband Basant Singh, his second wife Preet Kaur, father-in-law Lakhwinder Singh and mother-in-law Balbir Kaur.

She alleged that all accused in the case knew that her husband was still legally married to her. They deliberately arranged to satisfy their urge for dowry from the second wife, she alleged. 

Phagwara, January 21
Four members of a marriage party sustained injuries during a marriage ceremony here yesterday following a clash with DJ group. A minor dispute between marriage party’s members and DJ system group on the issue of changing the song was said to be the cause behind the clash, the police said. Some miscreants also damaged one car parked outside the marriage palace, the police said. — TNS

Nawanshahr,January 21
Giving a new twist to the electoral battle, the BSP, which earlier has been pinning hopes on the prospective SAD rebel, Resham Singh Thiara, to contest as a party nominee, announced the candidature of Mr Vinod Kumar, grand son of former MLA Chaudhary Bishna Ram, for the Nawanshahr seat.

The BSP has been finding itself in a dilemma to decide about its candidate from Nawanshahr. Mr Darshan Lal Jethumazara, the traditional BSP candidate, had joined SAD(B) a few days ago and Chaudhary Ram Kishan, who had contested the last Assembly election on the BSP ticket, is not in sync with the present BSP leadership. Expressing concern over various splits in the BSP, he has recently convened a meeting of BSP leaders and workers to chalk out the future strategy.

The BSP (Kanshi Ram) has already announced nomination of Mr Sat Pal from Nawanshahr. Mr Jagdish Suman, state president, BSP (Kanshi Ram), said the party would strive hard to mobilise the Dalits against the nefarious designs of the BSP (Mayawati) for damaging the mission of late Kanshi Ram.

The traditional political rivals, Mr Jatinder Singh Kariha ( SAD) and Mr Parkash Singh, sitting Congress MLA, are once again facing each other in the ensuing Assembly election.