PANCHAYAT ELECTIONS: Citing poor law & order, BJP activists protest in Fazilka dist

The BJP activists today held protests across Fazilka district against “highhandedness” of the state government during filing of nomination papers for the panchayat poll.

Abohar MLA Sandeep Jakhar went to Jalalabad to express solidarity with the protesters who had been sitting on a dharna on the Fazilka-Ferozepur road for the past four days.

The protesters told Jakhar that nomination papers of a woman aspirant from Ghubaya village were alleged torn at the behest of the government. Jakhar took to social media to remind Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of his assurance of conducting a free and fair poll at the grassroots.

In Fazilka, the protesters led by Ramesh Kataria and Subodh Verma raised slogans against the state government and alleged that incumbent MLAs didn’t let aspirants owing allegiance to the opposition parties file their papers.

Senior BJP leader Dhanpat Siyag, Deepak Chhapola and Ramesh Gandhi led the protesters in Abohar. Siyag said incidents of firing and killing of rival candidates clearly indicated failure of law and order in the state.

Kanwarjit Singh Mann, Assistant Returning Officer-cum-SDM, Jalalabad, said the preparations were underway for holding elections in a transparent manner.

The SDM said for 155 panchayats in Jalalabad block, 875 nominations for the posts of sarpanch and 2,183 for the posts of panch were received. After scrutiny of papers, only 22 nominations of aspirants who filed papers for the post of sarpanch had been rejected on technical grounds, he said.