The Fact News Service
Chandigarh, May 11
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday appealed to the Election Commission of India to register a case against all Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators and senior leaders who had rigged the Jalandhar parliamentary by-poll besides calling for action against Punjab chief electoral officer C Sibin as well as the Jalandhar deputy commissioner and the Jalandhar Rural SSP Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar for colluding with AAP to help its candidate in the by-poll.
Addressing a press conference here, former minister Bikram Singh Majithia told the ECI that Punjab chief electoral officer C Sibin was compromised and had willfully not taken any action against AAP legislators and leaders. He said the reason for this was the fact that Sibin was being probed by the Vigilance department in the Rs 700 crore PSIDC plot bifurcation scam. “This is why C Sibin has slept over complaints made by the opposition and has not ordered the arrest of any of the AAP legislators”.
Giving further details, Bikram Majithia said AAP legislators who had been caught in Jalandhar on the polling day or had been photographed there included Dalbir Singh Tong, Daljit Singh Grewal, Jasbir Sandhu, Gurpreet Gogi, Amolak Singh, Madan Lal Bagga and Ajay Gupta.
Majithia said the lack of even a semblance of control on the election process by the chief electoral officer had encouraged AAP to indulge in goondaism and even take over booths. “Videography inside booths was also not done and an AAP leader and Minister Inderbir Singh Nijher loyalist Gaurav Montu was even caught by SAD-BSP candidate Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi while in possession of seals meant for ballot boxes”. He said SSP Mukhwinder Bhullar tried to prevail upon SAD workers to let Montu go free, indicating the entire administration was under the influence of the AAP government. He also cited the indifference of deputy commissioner Jaspreet Singh towards complaints filed by the opposition in this regard.
The SAD leader also targeted the chief electoral officer for failing to take action against chief minister Bhagwant Mann who continued to appeal to voters to cast votes in favour of AAP on polling day.
Meanwhile answering a query, Majithia said the AAP government had abysmally failed to secure the Virasat-e-Marg leading to Sri Darbar Sahib leading to three repeated bomb blasts in the area. Describing this as the biggest law and order and intelligence failure, Majithia said the case was finally cracked by the SGPC and its task force even as the AAP government and the State Police indulged in a high profile PR exercise on the border belt for more than one week. He said the chief minister did not find it fit to even visit Sri Darbar Sahib to review the case but continued to indulge in PR exercises. “All this has resulted in fear psychosis amongst people besides resulting in a huge loss of revenue for hoteliers and businesses in the holy city”, he added.
