In Faridkot village,103% polling as ‘dead men’ come out to vote

The winner from the Wara Daraka zila parishad is SAD nominee Kultar Brar,younger brother of SAD MLA Mantar Singh Brar,who incidentally is chief parliamentary secretary in the Department of Rural Development and Panchayats. Faridkot DC,Ravi Bhagat,when contacted,said they have not received any complaint on the “103 per cent” polling so far. “We are trying to get it verified,” he said.

Congress candidate Amritlal alleged that the ruling party workers put their stamp on ballot papers without keeping the number of actual voters in mind. “It was all so blatant that they did not even try to match the numbers. Despite being in power and being the brother of a chief parliamentary secretary,my opponent feared he would lose,” he said.

Congress in-charge of Faridkot,former MLA Kushaldeep Dhillon,said such bogus votes were cast in almost all villages of the zone but Gajansinghwala exposed the “bungling”. “They did everything,from engineering false withdrawal of nominations,rejection on frivolous grounds to casting votes of the dead. Ballot papers were kept in ghee tins,which can be opened by unscrewing two bolts. Its time these elections are declared a farce and the ruling party simply nominate its own people as members of zila parishads and block samitis,” he said.

Some more interesting tales like that of Gajanwala emerged on the counting day. In Sanour Assembly segment of Patiala district,a Congress candidate was called back for recounting for being granted the winner certificate for block samiti. He refused to surrender the certificate. “He was told that his election has been challenged and a recounting will be done. As such,they rejected nominations of our candidates and intimidated them. I asked my candidate not to return the winner’s certificate,” Sanour MLA Laal Singh said.