The Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) staged a joint dharna outside the SDM’s office on Tuesday in protest against the rejection of nomination papers of their several candidates for the Abohar Municipal Corporation election.
Apart from District Congress Committee president Harpreet Singh Sidhu and SAD halqa incharge Harvinder Singh Harry, hundreds of workers took part in the protest and raised slogans against the state government.
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Sidhu claimed that the nomination papers of eight Congress candidates were rejected allegedly under pressure of the ruling AAP leadership. He said the administration did not even tell them the deficiencies in the rejected papers. Sidhu said the nomination papers of Congress candidates Pooja from Ward No. 6, Jeevanjot Goldy Ward No. 7, Ravi Kumar Ward No. 13, Shankar Lal Ward No. 18, Pooja Ward No. 19, Rakesh Kumar Ward No. 23, Bhagwanti Devi Ward No. 38 and Suman Rani Ward No. 48 were rejected. He said the Congress would challenge the rejections in the High Court.
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Harry too accused the administration and government of “murdering democracy”. He claimed that the nomination papers of six SAD candidates were rejected. They were Gurvinder Kaur from Ward No. 2, Sunil Kumar Ward No. 11, Jasbir Ward No. 17, Soma Rani Ward No. 22, Swaran Kaur Ward No. 26 and Muskan Soni Ward No. 38. Refuting the allegations, SDM-cum-Returning Officer Ravinder Singh Arora said the nominations were rejected purely on legal grounds after deficiencies were found during the scrutiny of papers