Demanding cancellation of Congress nominee for Jalalabad bypoll Raminder Awla’s candidature, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) against Congress party and its candidate alleging violation of model code of conduct in Jalalabad constituency.
The party has sought stern action against the Congress party for violating the code by asking the voters to approach PSPCL (Punjab State Power Corporation Limited) offices to get their electricity bills waived off.
Lodging a formal complaint before the state Chief Electoral Officer, the political secretary of SAD president Charanjit Singh Brar said that the Congress leaders were trying to “bribe voters by promising to pay off their electricity bills”. People were being asked to support the Congress candidate and get their power bill waived off or paid by the party, he alleged.
Brar said that the Congressmen were openly collecting the power bills from the villages and paying them from their own pockets. “A person named Sunil Kumar was collecting the power bills as well as phone numbers of the people while sitting in the PSPCL office. Voters are being informed by making calls or sending SMSes to them after their power bills get paid by the power department,” he said.
Terming it a ‘clear violation of the poll code’, the SAD leader urged the ECI to order the registration of a case against the Congress candidate for indulging in the practice of ‘luring the voters with money’ and immediately cancel his candidature to ensure a free and fair poll in the constituency.
HOW CAN ‘ANTI-FARMER’ BJP BE PRO-FARMER IN DELHI AND PUNJAB: JAKHAR ASKS SUKHBIR
Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar on Monday dared the SAD president Sukhbir Badal to shun double standards and clarify stand on SAD relations with the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).
“When you (Sukhbir) describe BJP anti-farmer and anti-poor in the election campaign in Haryana, how the saffron party can be termed as pro-farmer and pro-poor in Punjab and at Centre where SAD has alliance with the BJP,” he asked, adding that the SAD leaders condemned BJP in Haryana for its policies but appreciate the Central Government run by the same party.
Jakhar said that it was a strange that on one side, SAD president calling the Haryana voters to root out the BJP government from power in the State, while on other hand, SAD is partner in NDA at the Centre and enjoying ministerial berth in the Union Cabinet.
Only a day before, Sukhbir, while campaigning in Haryana where SAD is contesting in alliance with the INLD against the BJP, had appealed the voters to exclude the anti-farmer and anti-poor BJP Government from power in the state.
“If the BJP’s policies are anti-farmer and anti-poor in Haryana, then why the SAD ran the Government for 10 years in the Punjab with the BJP and still partner in the same the BJP Government at the Centre for the last five and a half years,” he said.