Senior Congress leader and Former Health Minister, Sh. Balbir Singh Sidhu has today demanded re-polling at various wards from State Election Commission of Punjab. He mentioned that there are glaring irregularities in Panchayat elections especially conducted in the villages of Barmajara Colony, Jujhar Nagar, Raipur and Balongi Colony of Mohali block. Because in these villages the candidates of the opposition party have been declared defeated by rigging the number of votes.
Blaming the election staff, Mr. Sidhu said that in Barmajara Colony, Jujhar Nagar and Raipur, the candidates of Satadhari Party have been declared winners without even counting the votes. He said that the election staff pushed the opposing candidates out of the counting centers after getting the papers signed by all the candidates before the counting.
The Congress leader said that his support candidate was declared defeated in Barmajara Colony by 50 votes, in Jujhar Nagar by 40 votes and in Raipur by 34 votes. They said that when they demanded a recount, the polling staff ran away with the ballot papers. He further said that the people protesting against this naked white bullying were also threatened and abused by the police.
Mr. Sidhu said that the aggrieved candidates and a large number of their supporters under his leadership stopped the road traffic near Balongi barrier from 10 pm to 1.30 am, but the administration officials did not fall on the ears of the officials. They said that they will give a memorandum to the State Election Commission regarding re-polling in these villages and if they do not issue orders for re-polling, then they will knock on the door of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Mr. Sidhu has blamed the Bhagwant Mann government and said that it has strangled democracy by rigging the panchayat elections on a large scale, and by creating sharp factionalism in the villages, it has sown hatred and violence instead of mutual community, which will lead to Dangerous results will come out in due time. He said, "In these panchayat elections.