1.25 lakh candidates in fray for panchayat polls

PATIALA:
A total of 11,217 candidates are now left in the fray for panchayat elections in this districts after as many as 16,318 candidates had filed their nomination papers of whom 1586 were rejected and 3270 others withdrew from the contest. According to official sources, 983 panches and 181 sarpanches have been declared elected unanimously.

Sources attributed the row over the failure of the administrative machinery to cope with nominations to the changed procedure adopted this time. While on previous occasions, polling parties would go to villages and carry the election work in the presence of villagers, this time the filing of nomination papers was centralised at offices of the block development and panchayat officers. As huge crowds assembled outside these offices, the entire machinery came under tremendous strain, they pointed out.

While a majority of the allegations of rejection of papers on flimsy grounds have been levelled by Congress leaders and their supporters, certain Akali leaders, including state ministers, have accused the Congress leaders of bribing some lower-rung officers.

LUDHIANA:
Except for some stray complaints, the poll process has been relatively smooth so far. District Electoral Officer-cum-Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Sarbjit Singh maintained that except for a few individual cases no major political party had lodged any compliant against any of the eleven returning officers. Observing that most of the nomination papers that were rejected were improperly filled, unsigned or did not carry the names of proposers and seconders, he claimed that so far there were no reports of rejections on flimsy grounds.

Of the 871 panchayats in the district, 1963 (12.49 per cent) nomination papers of sarpanches and panches were rejected. The percentage of rejection for sarpanches and panches was 11.8 per cent(419) and 12.62 per cent (1544), respectively. The highest number of nominations for sarpanches 54(22.88 per cent) were rejected in Sudhar block and the lowest in Samrala block 12(5 per cent). In the case of panches, Khanna block led with 223 (22.22 per cent) rejections while the lowest number of rejections 34(3.9 per cent) were again in Samrala.

BATHINDA:
Though DEO Chander Shekhar Talwar maintained that he had not received any complaint of irregularities in Chak Fateh Singh Wala and Harjoginder Singh Nagar villages, an inquiry by the Lok Morcha, Punjab, has brought out that all rules were thrown to the winds to pave the way for unanimous election of brothers-in-law of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Inderjit Singh and Gurprit Singh as the sarpanches of these villages, respectively.

The inquiry report has alleged that prior to the start of election process, a new village Bhai Harjoginder Singh Nagar in the name of Badal’s late father-in-law was constituted out of Chakk Fateh Singh Wala.The transfer of votes from the parent village to the new one through pick and choose, dual entry of voters in electoral rolls of both the villages as well as some bogus allegedly played a key role in these unanimous elections.The report was prepared by Morcha chief N.K. Jeet and its Bathinda unit president Jagmail Singh.