BSP candidate complains of unfair treatment in poll campaign

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 6

BSP leader and the party’s Jalandhar candidate Balwinder Kumar on Monday addressed the media for the second time this week, alleging step-motherly treatment being meted out to him as Lok Sabha poll candidate under the AAP government. He also alleged similar discrimination by government departments (like law enforcement agencies), ahead of elections.

Earlier, Balwinder Kumar had addressed a press meet on Tuesday on issues of allocation of security and different treatment being meted out to him than other parties.

A BSP candidate from Jalandhar in the previous Lok Sabha polls too, Balwinder Kumar had received over 2 lakh votes in the 2019 General Election and got about 33,000 votes in Kartarpur during the 2022 assembly poll.

Addressing the media, Balwinder Kumar alleged, “The AAP keeps raising the issue that injustice has been done with the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. We want to bring to attention that AAP, in the past two years, has misused the state machinery for its own ends. While law enforcement and law itself should be equal for all, our workers have been targeted for things which had they been done by AAP leaders, would have invited no action at all.”

Balwinder Kumar questioned the alleged presence of police officials at the inauguration of AAP’s Kartarpur office after the 2022 elections. He also expressed misgivings about the prevalence of drugs in Kartarpur constituency which he alleged, was not addressed, despite complaints.

“The police machinery should be neutral. But despite AAP’s public claims of being ‘kattar imandar’, our workers started to get false complaints against them for which we had to hold dharnas. Due to rampant drug abuse in Kartarpur, many deaths happened at a single village. Drug problem is there in Jandu Singha and Dhogri village belts. We held a dharna on the issue on July 23 last year at Maqsudan.”

Balwinder Kumar further alleged, “Despite that fact that we (BSP leaders) didn’t even block the highway, 163 of our activists and leaders were booked, including me. It was merely a 30-45 minute protest. The case was questionably shifted to Hoshiarpur, and has been pending. It is yet to be resolved. We were never summoned for a hearing even though we provided a video that we didn’t block traffic.”

While the BSP also held a roadshow in Jalandhar last evening, Balwinder Kumar questioned the lack of security. On Tuesday, in his press conference, he had questioned the lack of security though the BJP, Congress and AAP candidates have been allotted security.

He said, “During our roadshow last evening, police personnel accompanied us and moderated traffic up to Wadala Chowk. But once we crossed it and the rural area started, the police personnel left. Buses and cars entered our roadshow. We merely escaped injuries. Only one vehicle and just two policemen were left with our convoy.”

Gujjar leader RP Singh joins SAD

Nawanshahr: Choudhary RP Singh, Congress leader from the Balachaur Assembly segment, joined the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) during the Punjab Bachao Yatra here on Monday. Upon his joining, Sukhbir Badal said RP Singh was a prominent Gujjar community leader and the SAD would be strengthened in Balachaur with his entry into the party. The SAD president, who toured the Balachaur and Garhshankar Assembly segments, along with party’s Sri Anandpur Sahib candidate Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra, said he was confident that Punjabis would support their own regional party in the Parliamentary elections.

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