Panchayat elections: Nominations of several candidates rejected

After scrutiny of papers for panchayat elections lists of contestants was displayed by the administration yesterday evening. A number of aspirants for the posts of sarpanch and panch alleged that their papers were cancelled deliberately.

During a demonstration, residents of Loharka Khurd village alleged that with the intervention of Attari MLA, nominations of Ranjit Singh along with his three covering candidates for the post of sarpanch and 14 panches were cancelled by the administration to favour Aam Aadmi Party supported sarpanch.

“Dharmveer Singh was elected sarpanch unopposed as papers of his opponents were rejected. Jaswinder Singh Ramdas, Attari MLA, used his influence to get my papers cancelled,” alleged Ranjit Singh.

“Today, we demonstrated against the administration at the DC office. We also met Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney, but situation didn’t change. Officials have alleged that our ‘chula tax’ receipts are fake. But these receipts were issued by the block development office. One of our panches Sumandeep Kaur also used the same receipt, but her papers were not cancelled. Our nominations have been rejected deliberately,” said Ranjit Singh.

Similarly, BJP leader Jaswinder Singh Jahangir claimed that nominations of three out of nine panches for Jahangir village were cancelled without any valid reason. He said, “They have appealed to higher officials of the administration, but reportedly their pleas have not been heard. The papers have been cancelled with the intervention of the ruling party MLAs. The nomination of aspirant for sarpanch of Dhaul Kalan village has also been cancelled without any solid reason.”

Jasbir Singh Gill (Dimpa), former Member of Parliament and Congress leader, highlighted two cases in which nominations were cancelled today. He said taking political vendetta, democratic values, ethics and law to another low, the nominations of Congress panchayat candidates Malkiat Singh of Sarja village, Tarsikka block, Amritsar district, and Iqbal Singh of Mudhal village, Verka block, Amritsar district, were cancelled today.

“On October 5, the same set of nomination papers were found correct and both the aspirants were eligible to contest polls. But today, nominations of all four Congress candidates for the post of sarpanch, including covering candidates, have been rejected. This is day light murder of democracy with district administration, the police and returning officers being equal partners in this. They have done this in the entire state, but Sarja and Mudhal village incidents are unique where nominations were accepted, but officials rejected them under political pressure,” said Dimpa.

“It’s contrary to the government claims to hold free and fair panchayat polls. They snatched people’s right to elect sarpanch of their choice. The government, which desperately wants to get sarpanches of its choice elected, should have brought new law and nominated its men to the post,” Dimpa said, while adding that he had written to the State Election Commission to overrule returning officer’s orders and punish erring officials.

SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said, “Returning officers were forced to delete names of Opposition candidates from the final lists post scrutiny. Nomination papers of all SAD candidates were rejected en masse in several villages of Majitha.”