Amid voter list fraud allegations, Gillan villagers boycott panchayat elections

Several villagers of Gillan village in Sultanpur Lodhi subdivision of Kapurthala district boycotted the elections amid allegations of alleged fraud in the voter lists. Villagers also raised slogans against the district administration.

Alleging fraud, villagers of one faction in the village boycotted the panchayat election. They also alleged that changes were made to the voter lists of the village after filing of nominations.

Villagers alleged that after the nomination process on October 4, as many as 33 votes of various wards were added to ward number 4 of the village. They demanded recounting of votes at the village.

Gillan village resident Kehar Singh alleged, “We have boycotted the panchayat election being held today. The poll at the village should be held again after revision of voter lists. Votes of various wards have been shifted to other wards. Around 33 votes from various wards have been fraudulently shifted to ward number 4. The voter list issued on October 4 was absolutely valid. Whatever changes happened were done later. It came to our notice only today that fraudulent votes were being polled. Soon after, we have raised this issue.”

Kehar alleged that when he took up the issue with the poll staff today, they were told that the list was as per the records received from the SDM office.

Another villager Jaswant Singh said, “Papers had been filed by Jasvir Singh, a candidate of ward number 4. We filed his papers and took a voter list from the SDM office on October 4. Later, the voter list was allegedly changed as 33 votes were added from other wards to ward number 4.”