Noisy protests mar party polls in Jalandhar

JALANDHAR, MAY 18: THE district Congress Bhawan witnessed noisy protests as the process for party organisational elections for 11 blocks go...

JALANDHAR, MAY 18: THE district Congress Bhawan witnessed noisy protests as the process for party organisational elections for 11 blocks got underway on Friday.

A group of partymen led by Amarjit Singh Lalli of Adampur block and Anil Dutta, the State Youth Congress general secretary, owing allegiance to former minister Avtar Henry and the Pradesh Congress president Santokh Singh Randhawa, stormed the party office alleging malpractice in the poll process by the group belonging to former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal.

Tension gripped the office as 300-odd protestors manhandled the office staff, raised slogans against the district returning officer and charged an assistant returning officer with not being even a primary member of the party.

They alleged that vested interests had seized membership record books and active members had been ignored to promote some nonentities.

The irate partymen even threw out the photographs of some prominent leaders displayed in the office. No senior leader was present at the venue to control the situation.

Some of the members alleged that they reached Congress Bhawan at the stipulated time of 10 am but there was no sign of officers deputed to conduct the poll.

District returning officer Ratna Devi, when contacted at Amritsar, said six assistant returning officers had been appointed in consultation with senior leaders and the MLAs of the district. Former minister Jaikishan Saini refuted the charges and termed the protests as a desperate move by some elements to influence the election process. He said the membership records were in the concerned office with the staff.