‘Cash,liquor used to influence voters’

One of the voters,requesting anonymity,talking to the Indian Express,said: “SAD workers were seen distributing cash at booth numbers 111 to 117. Soon Sathi arrived and stayed put here for nearly two hours. Jain too arrived after some time but left after a few minutes.”

Meanwhile,Sathi said he has informed returning officer over phone about the incidents. In the other incident at Dagru village,former Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike,allegedly “tried to influence the voters.”

Ranikle the SAD MLA from Attari constituency in Amritsar,was spotted by a social worker,who informed police officials on duty. The police asked the legislator to leave the constituency immediately,the sources said.

However,a local waiting to cast his vote in the village said,“Ranike told the voters to exercise their franchise in favour of the SAD. Later,sensing media presence,Ranike moved to the village sarpanch’s house.”

The district administration had ordered all political leaders from outside Moga to leave the constituency. Several cars with Chandigarh registration plates were also seen in the Dagru vilage.

Contacted,Kusumjit Sidhu,chief electoral officer,said,“Many complaints of cash distribution were received but most of them were found to be false.”

With inputs from Sukhdeep Kaur