AAP supports Gurdaspur DC

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Uma Shankar Gupta has found some much-needed support from local AAP leaders who have decided to “stand steadfastly, firmly and unwaveringly” behind the beleaguered officer. Gupta had come under a ferocious attack from Congress leaders yesterday. They claimed the administration had not provided party workers with No Objection Certificates (NOC), a mandatory requirement to contest the panchayat elections.

For nearly 30 minutes, the DC office was converted into a mini-battlefield. A sense of trepidation and fear has engulfed officers in the District Administrative Complex (DAC), despite the fact that several hours have elapsed ever since their boss came under unprovocative fire. A video went viral minutes after the incident.

Today, AAP leaders including Batala MLA Sherry Kalsi and Halqa In-charges Raman Bahl (Gurdaspur), Jagrup Singh Sekhwan (Qadian), Gurdeep Singh Randhawa (Dera Baba Nanak) and Balbir Singh Pannu (Fatehgarh Churian) launched a counter-offensive.

A press conference was hurriedly convened today with a two-pronged motive. One was to defend the DC, BDPOs and panchayat secretaries and the other was to lambast the Congressmen who just hours ago had their DC on the mat.

An AAP MLA said, “The aim of our press conference is to remind Congressmen of the last panchayat elections and also the polls to civic bodies held during their rule from 2017 till 2022. In this period, all elections were rigged and won by the Congress because officers were instructed to wipe off the Opposition parties from the map. In the 2018 panchayat elections, the ruling Congress had made a clean sweep. The bureaucrats ensured that only the preferred candidates of their political masters would contest. The DCs and BDPOs were openly asked to reject papers of opposition candidates. If we are doing it now, why are they crying? It is a classic case of ‘as you sow, so shall you reap’.”