SHIMLAPURI SHO SUSPENDED FOR DERELICTION OF DUTY
In view of the group clash on late Monday night in Ludhiana, Punjab Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju on Tuesday ordered to appoint Inspector Kulwant Singh as Shimlapuri Police Station’s Station House Officer (SHO). “As per report received from Ludhiana Commissioner of Police, Lok Insaaf Party’s candidate from Atam Nagar Simarjit Singh Bains, along with his supporters, attacked his opponent Congress party candidate Kamaljit Singh Karwal on Monday. During this, Shimlapuri SHO Sub-Inspector Labh Singh was present on the spot but could not handle the situation as per law,” said the spokesperson. Taking serious note of the SI’s “dereliction of duty”, he has been suspended with immediate effect and transferred to Police Lines Ludhiana and departmental inquiry has been initiated against him.
SSM CLARIFIES, ALL ITS CANDIDATES NOT CONTESTING ON ONE ELECTION SYMBOL
Sanyukt Samaj Morcha, a political outfit floated by Punjab’s farmers’ unions, on Tuesday clarified that though the election commission had allotted ‘cot’ as Morcha’s election symbol, all its candidates are not contesting on a common symbol. “There is confusion among the voters about the SSM’s election symbol. We want to clarify that as SSM candidates filed their nominations as independents, there is no common election symbol. Many of them have got manja (cot), while others got pot (ghara), and still, some of them got other symbols such as farmer with sugarcane, tiller, etc,” said SSM’s chief spokesperson Manjit Singh.
CAPT DISMISSES CHANNI AS LACKING IN CALIBRE, WARNS OF EXPLOSION SOON FROM ‘DISCARDED’ SIDHU
Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said that the Congress had made a big mistake by announcing a CM face, as “a chief minister should be decided on grounds of capability and not on the metric of caste, be it a SC, Jat or Hindu, which they had done.” Pointing out that Punjab was never before divided on caste or religious lines, Capt Amarinder said: “Channi does not have the calibre of a chief minister”, and his tall claims cannot fool the people of the State. At the same time, the former chief minister warned of an explosion soon from “discarded” Navjot Singh Sidhu “as he is too ambitious to stay quiet for long”.
KEJRIWAL’S ‘SURRENDER SPEECH’ SHOWS SAD-BSP HEADING TOWARDS 2/3RD MAJORITY: SAD
Describing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s direct appeal to Akali workers as a ‘surrender speech’ by AAP leader, SAD on Tuesday thanked him for accepting that his mauka (opportunity) call has been rejected by Punjabis, forcing him to beg at the doors of his rival soldiers to save him. SAD also reminded Punjabis that like Kejriwal, “the British had also sought only a mauka and we remained slaves for over 200 years and lost Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s Khalsa empire. You don’t expect Punjabis to repeat the same mistake,” said Harcharan Bains, Principal Advisor to SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal.
CHEEMA TO BE SENIOR MINISTER IN SAD-BSP GOVT: SUKHBIR
SAD on Tuesday received a major boost in Ropar assembly constituency with former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) member Jarnail Singh Aulakh rejoining the party along with his entire team. Welcoming Aulakh back into the party fold, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal recounted his past contributions to the party under Parkash Singh Badal’s leadership and assured him due respect and recognition. Sukhbir also urged the party workers to give one final push to the candidature of former minister Daljit Singh Cheema, who, he said, was already leading over his rivals. “Cheema is best suited for the development of the area and he would be a senior minister in the next SAD-BSP alliance Government,” he said.
AAP’s MARIO TOUCH TO PUNJAB POLL
Locked in the ballot battle, the political parties this time are also battling it out in the virtual arena coming out with new and innovative ideas to send across the message to the electorates and woo them. The latest idea comes from the Aam Aadmi Party which on Tuesday shared an edited clip from a famous ‘Mario Kart game’, featuring Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and AAP's CM face for Punjab Bhagwant Mann, to take a jibe at the ruling Congress. With the iconic Mario Kart theme song playing in the background, Kejriwal and Mann’s animated versions can be seen jumping up to strike their heads against elevated blocks to reveal AAP’s various initiatives and promised schemes. However, the process does not go quite as smoothly for Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi who can be seen leaping up to hit the brick only to fall back down, seemingly in pain. His cries of distress bring the state Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu into the screen, after which he too strikes his head and falls back down.
AAP SUPPORTER ATTEMPTS SUICIDE IN PROTEST AGAINST RANA GURJEET
AAP’s woman supporter on Tuesday allegedly attempted suicide by pouring acid on herself, accusing Punjab Technical Education Minister Rana Gurjeet Singh of having her beaten up for hurling a shoe at his poster last November. Identified as Sushma Anand, the 55-year-old Kapurthala resident poured acid on herself during an AAP demonstration on the Kapurthala-Sultanpur Lodhi road before the Sadar police station. Following the incident, she was rushed to the local civil hospital by the police, and her condition was described as “safe”. Anand, in her police statement, claimed that the police did not lodge a complaint against her assailants, the Minister’s men, and Congress leaders, who beat her up at the behest of the Minister after she threw the shoe at his poster.