Peeved over the large scale rejection of its candidates’ nominations, the Shiromani Akali Dal on Tuesday sought an inquiry into the same, whiledemanding countermanding the polls where nomination papers were “wrongly rejected” or where administrative
obstacles didn’t permit aspirants to file their papers.
At the same time, the party has also declared to boycott the Zila Parishad elections in Gurdaspur, Fatehgarh Churian and Dera Baba Nanak, while the elections would be fought in Batala, Qadian and Hargobindpur. The party has left the decision to contest elections in Dinanagar on its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The decision to boycott polls were announced by SAD’s Gurdaspur district president Gurbachan Singh Babbehali who maintained that the Commission rejected the nomination papers of 12 out of the total 27 candidates from Gurdaspur, 40 of the 42 from Dera Baba Nanak and 17 of 34 nomination papers from Fatehgarh Churian.
“This is why we have decided to boycott elections from these three constituencies,” said Babbehali while adding that the party managed to get clear the nomination papers of all its candidates from Batala and they party would actively contest elections, and surely win.
Meanwhile, senior Akali leader and former minister Daljit Singh Cheema has written to the State Election Commission urging the commission to order a probe for large scale rejections. Besides, Cheema also sought deterrent action against the erring officials. He said that in all, papers of 249 aspirants have been “wrongly rejected” by the officials and a detailed list too have been supplied to the Commission.