Kapurthala: Ending dharna, AAP's Manju Rana finally takes out roadshow

Kapurthala, March 14

The elections for the district administration practically got over on Monday after the Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Kapurthala Assembly seat Manju Rana, who was sitting on a dharna outside the counting centre at Virsa Vihar since the election result day, finally lifted her protest in the afternoon. She finally came out and took out a roadshow in the city this evening.

Manju Rana had been sitting on a dharna alleging foul play by the police, the administration and counting staff. She had alleged that since all of them were posted in the district for many years, they had all helped Rana Gurjeet Singh win the poll and further even indulged in foul play at the time of polling and counting.

Rana Gurjeet had won the poll for the fourth time by over 7,000 votes amid the AAP wave across Punjab.

Manju Rana, who has been a retired judge, alleged that in one of the booths the number of counted votes were more than the actual booth. “In booth number 3, there were 292 votes polled but they have declared results of 635 votes. How could this be possible? We are asking all the officials but no one has a satisfactory answer,” she had been claiming and hence chose not to leave the counting centre till a case was lodged on her demand.

Several officials, including Deputy Commissioner Deepti Uppal, had been trying to convince her and tell her that she needed to file an election petition to raise the objection, but she had failed to budge all these days. During the course of her dharna, she even entered into a verbal duel with several officials and used foul language against a DSP and some administrative officials, the videos of which kept on getting circulated.

This afternoon, Manju Rana held a press conference at the counting centre and announced that she was ending her dharna as the SSP, Kapurthala, had assured her that legal recourse would be followed. She said, “Even my party wants that since it has now come to power, I must not confine myself to a dharna and move out and work for the people. Since I have been a judge, they want to use my legal knowledge and go about in villages and city areas to help people solve matters of the people in the best possible ways.”

Meanwhile, the DC said, “Any candidate who is not satisfied with the counting procedure has to file an election petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which she is free to do. Her allegation of more votes from a ballot unit than polled was proven wrong to her right in front of the election observer. To settle her second issue that one person voted at two booths, she has to move the court. Only the court can allow us to open the re-sealed EVMs and VVPAT machines now and verify any complaint,” she said.