Chandigarh, February 16, 2021 (Yes Punjab News)
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has demanded the State Election Commission for re-polling in the places where violence and booth capturing incidents were reported during the municipal bodies’ elections on February 14.
In a statement issued from the party headquarters on Tuesday, senior leader of the AAP and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema said that the Congress goons did violence and captured booths in over two hundred places in the state.
He said that the reports of violence and booth capturing by the Congress goons were reported in Samana, Abohar, Patti, Ferozepur, Rajpura, Bathinda, Moga, Dhuri, Patran and many other municipal bodies. Cheema said that at many places, the AAP workers had shared photos and videos of the Congress goons, forcibly entering polling booths and capturing booths.
“Looking at those pictures and videos, it is clear how the Congress goons looted the booth by intimidating the people and tried to snatch the right of people to vote.
But it is a matter of shame that instead of stopping those goons, the police were assaulting the AAP workers who were opposing hooliganism and were getting the booths captured from the Congress goons by giving them a free hand,” said Cheema.
He said that on Monday, the Aam Aadmi Party team collected reports from party workers across the state about booths where incidents of violence and booth capturing were recorded. “The results of the reports turned out to be shocking. More than 200 booths witnessed incidents of violence and booth capturing,” he added.
Cheema further said that at some municipal bodies, booth capturing and violence were reported in almost all the wards.
Questioning the attitude of the Election Commission, Cheema said, “Surprisingly, even after such a large number of booth capturing cases came up, the Election Commission decided to get re-voting at only 3 polling stations to declare the election as independent.
The Election Commission’s attitude was completely one-sided during the entire elections,” he said. Cheema said that it seemed as if the Election Commission was the election wing of the Congress. “The Election Commission did not make any arrangements for holding free and fair elections,” he added.
He said that the Aam Aadmi Party had met the State Election Commissioner several times before the elections and expressed doubts over rigging in the election. “We had already informed the Election Commission about the goons of the Congress and the attitude of the police, that the deployment of paramilitary forces should be done during the elections.
But it is very unfortunate that in order to save the festival of democracy from getting filthy, the Commission did not comply with our demands,” said Cheema. He said that the commission left the elections in the hands of Captain and the Congress goons.
The AAP leader said that the state youth Congress president, Barinder Singh Dhillon himself had accepted the violence and rigging by the Congress people in the elections. “The whole state listened to him, Captain and the Election Commission should also listen to the young leader of the Congress,” added Cheema.
He said that plundering elections through the goons was Captain’s well-thought-out strategy. Cheema said that the booth capturing incidents had again proved that Captain Amarinder’s policy was to suppress the voice of the public. The Congress believes in goons, not in democracy and Captain is the head of the goons who looted the elections, he added.
