AAP MLA invites complaints from rival candidates

Jaswant Singh Gajjanmajra, Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Amargarh, had invited complaints regarding any coercion or favouritism that candidates might have faced during the lead up to the Zila Parishad and Block Samiti elections.

Rival party candidates including those from Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP have been asked to contact him personally with grievances regarding harassment during nomination, scrutiny of nomination papers and ticket allotment.

AAP candidates and local leaders were also advised to follow the Election Commission’s guidelines and assist the administration in conducting the election in a fair, transparent and democratic manner.

“As desired by our CM, Bhagwant Singh Mann, we state that each and every candidate has equal rights to contest election and seek votes,” read the post uploaded on Gajjanmajra’s social media account.

Gajjanmajra said he had directed office bearers and party workers to ensure that no rival party candidates should be prevented from contesting elections or forced to switch parties. “Having learnt about unsavoury incidents taking place in some parts of the state during election period, I issued a formal appeal to invite complaints, if any, from aspirants from my constituency and got some issues resolved regarding delay in issuance of certain documents required for submission nominations,” said Gajjanmajra.

Gajjanmajra directed his own party’s candidates and supporters to seek votes on the basis of the candidates’ competence and the development that has taken place in the AAP government’s tenure. He said only one out of 182 nominations for three Block Samitis and one out of 50 nominations for the Malerkotla Zila Parishad were rejected on technical grounds during scrutiny.