DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today announced that it had filed twenty five petitions against gross malpractices in the panchayat elections by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ministers and legislators as well as government officials and disclosed that another thirty odd petitions would be filed tomorrow to demand justice for SAD workers who had been denied an opportunity to contest the elections.

Disclosing this, senior SAD leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said hundreds of aggrieved persons who had been unfairly ousted from the panchayat election process had approached the SAD's legal team during the last two days. "We have been compiling a list of complaints and sending them to the State Election Commission since last week. However as the issues remain addressed we have decided to file petitions in the high court".

Asserting that the ruling AAP dispensation had murdered democracy, Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said "today we received complaints that the nomination papers of as many as 25 Sarpanches had been rejected in Gidderbaha as they were not included in the revised lists. The surprising thing is that all the nomination papers of all these Sarpanches were in order and their papers had been cleared after due scrutiny. However, now their names have been omitted in the final list".

Dr Cheema said even today people brought receipts which were issued to them when they filed their nomination papers with the Returning Officers. "Now the Returning Officers do not have any account of their nominations. This amounts to tampering with the papers and perpetrating a fraud against the applicants. We have approached the State Election Commission to take appropriate action in the matter". The SAD leader also disclosed that there was a palpable fear in the minds of applicants and many of those whose nomination papers had been rejected unfairly had not registered any formal protest. "This is because these applicants have been threatened by AAP leaders and the applicants fear they may be embroiled in false cases in case they make any formal complaint. There are also complaints of gangsters and goons influencing the elections in some places", he added.

Dr Cheema said the SAD had also reminded the SEC to take appropriate action against all complaints submitted by the party including the incident at Dharamkot where SAD workers were prevented from filing their nominations en masse. He said the party had also demanded that the process of scrutiny be made public so that its transparency could be evaluated. "We have also demanded that senior officers be deputed as Observers across the State and the entire election process is videographed at the booth level".
(editor@dailyworld.in)