Pb poll panel cancels elections to 24 gram panchayats in Gidderbaha

Bathinda: Acting on complaints of wrongful rejection of nomination papers for gram panchayat polls, the Punjab state election commission (SEC) on Saturday cancelled the election in 24 gram panchayats of Muktsar district’s Gidderbaha block.
The SEC will now announce fresh dates for the polls. The SAD and Congress had already been staging protests over the issue, demanding action into the matter.They had approached the SEC with complaints of serious illegalities in the process, describing some actions as “forcible withdrawal” of nomination papers. They said candidates were forced to withdraw papers even after the deadline for it had passed and candidates’ papers were found to be in order during scrutiny.
It was alleged that returning officers (ROs) rejected nominations of several candidates by issuing revised lists, even though these nominations were accepted vide earlier published lists. The commission had summoned Muktsar ADC (development) Surinder Singh Dhillon and Gidderbaha SDM Jaspal Singh Brar, who denied any irregularities.
The SEC, in its order, has stated that after examining the record of nomination forms and comparing it with the list of withdrawn candidates, it became apparent that signatures of the said candidates on the withdrawal forms and nomination forms, filled by them, prima facie, did not evenly match.
The commission said the matter could be clinched only through forensic analysis and investigation. It, however, noted that many withdrawal forms bore a photograph of the candidate, perhaps to buttress the identification of the signatories, even when there was no need for it.
“It is rather improbable that a candidate would be carrying spare photographs in their pockets when submitting the withdrawal forms. Rather, identification, if any called for by the returning officer, would be… an Aadhaar card, or some other photo identity proof,” said the SEC in its order.
It said from the perusal of withdrawal forms, it was also observed no date had been mentioned by the ROs concerned. “These actions also raise some doubt about the veracity of withdrawal forms. Such activity leads the commission to come to a conclusion that there has likely been some manipulation in the acceptance of the alleged withdrawal forms,” the SEC mentioned.