No nomination paper filed in city, only two days left
Even as it was day two of filing of nomination papers for the December 21 Municipal Corporation elections in Jalandhar, neither the State Election Commission, nor political parties seem to have got ready for it.
The local administration, which was to release its revised electoral list by December 7, could not release it even till this evening. Likewise, none of the political parties, including the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, BJP or SAD, had announced any of its candidates for the 85-ward Municipal Corporation. With two days already over, only two days are left for the candidates to file their papers.
DCC chief Rajinder Beri and general secretary of the Congress legal cell Parminder Vig on Tuesday said the dilly-dallying of the administration in releasing the revised voter list, even three days after the scheduled date, indicated that the candidates of rival parties were being \Bstopped\B for filing their papers in time.
"The administration has failed in its duty to declare the revised electoral list in time and this has happened for the first time. We have even approached officials for providing us the list, but to no avail. The candidates of rival parties are already being pressured by the ruling AAP to join it or are being dissuaded from contesting from other parties. Had any candidate submitted papers today on the basis of draft voter list, the papers would have been cancelled," said Beri and Vig.
The duo maintained that there was confusion prevailing over the issue of NOC. "Our candidates are being told to procure NOC from the PSPCL and even the Police Clearing Certificate for which the applicants usually have to wait for a week. All Returning Officers appointed by the State Election Commission (SEC) are working as per their whims and fancies. The directions being issued by all ROs are different and the candidates are confused. The ROs or their staff is not even taking calls on the numbers provided in the list issued by the SEC.
BOX:
Aruna Arora joins AAP
Four-time Congress councillor Aruna Arora on Tuesday joined the Aam Aadmi Party in the presence of AAP state president Aman Arora in Chandigarh. The joining has come as a big boost for the ruling party given the personal links and efforts put in by Arora. She is known to be daily visit the posh Model Town area to ensure that the roads of her ward get properly cleaned. Her deceased husband Manoj Arora was a staunch Congressman and was closely linked to ex-MP Mahinder S Kaypee. Kaypee too had left Congress to join SAD in the Jalandhar LS poll. Former Congress Mayor Jagdish Raja, and his wife and ex-Senior Deputy Mayor Anita Raja, who joined AAP yesterday, on Tuesday met Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Like Aruna Arora, they too had joined through Aman Arora yesterday.
BOX: BJP too loses 5 leaders
Along with Arora, five other BJP leaders, including Vineet Dhir, Saurabh Seth, Amit Luthra, Kuljit S Happy and Gurmeet Singh Chauhan have also joined AAP. While none of them have been councillors earlier, they are learnt to be in race this time. Vineet Dhir's wife was councillor but he is learnt to be interested to contest himself in this tenure. Saurabh Seth's wife Kavita Seth had contested last time unsuccessfully. Before their joining AAP this evening, the BJP had already issued a release announcing their expulsion from the party.
BOX:
630 NDCs issued by MC
As a preparatory measure, all candidates, who are expecting ticket from the parties that they represent, continued to make a beeline for getting No-Due Certificates (NDCs) from the Municipal Corporation office for contesting the polls. Of the 358 candidates applied for NDCs in the office yesterday, 246 had been issued these. About 650 more applications were received, of which about 630 certificates were issued by this evening. The candidates said it was a whole-day process for them as they were made to wait for several hours for being issued the NDCs despite all their dues being cleared.
