AAP alleges vote theft, but is now stealing an entire election: Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar

Chandigarh: Reacting to SAD alleging police misuse in Patiala, Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar on Thursday said the Aam Aadmi Party has been alleging vote theft, but was itself preparing to steal the entire zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections in Punjab by openly misusing the police.In a written statement, Jakhar said, "Govt machinery is being blatantly misused for this purpose, which is why BJP met the [State] Election Commission yesterday and demanded videography of these elections." Jakhar stated the audio clip shared by SAD, in which senior police officers are allegedly heard discussing how to use force in the Dec 14 zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections, was proof of the damage being caused to democracy. "While Punjab's ‘rubber-stamp' chief minister Bhagwant Mann is roaming abroad, Manish Sisodia — who openly advocates the policy of ‘Saam, Daam, Dand, Bhed' — and his Aam Aadmi Party have decided not only to loot Punjab's treasury but also to steal votes," he said. "BJP will strongly oppose such coercion in Punjab."Jakhar asked the SEC to understand its responsibility and maintain impartiality. "The audio should be investigated not by a Punjab govt agency, but by an external and unbiased agency, and the officers planning this murder of democracy must be immediately removed from the election process," he said.BJP to approach court too: SharmaPunjab BJP working president Ashwani Sharma too slammed AAP in a post on X. "I said on Dec 2 that just as the AAP govt of Punjab misused govt machinery in municipal elections, panchayat elections, and by-elections for the assembly and Lok Sabha, it would do the same in the block samiti and zila parishad elections," he said. Sharma said he instructed Punjab BJP legal cell head Advocate N K Verma to file a petition in the high court for impartial elections.‘Police acting like AAP's B team'Punjab BJP general secretary Anil Sarin on Thursday accused Punjab Police of conducting "raids on party candidates' houses, locking their gates, picking up their family members, tearing their documents, and blocking roads to stop them from filing nomination papers" for the Dec 14 zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls in the state. Addressing a press conference here, Sarin said, "The police are no longer upholding the law; they are functioning like AAP's B-team. This is not democracy, these are signs of dictatorship in the state. These actions clearly amount to govt-backed hooliganism."He also showed some video clips purportedly showing police picking up Vikas Pandey, husband of BJP candidate Priyanka Pandey from Jandali in Patiala district, at around 5 am, and incidents of tearing nomination files of candidates in Rajpura and Ghanaur.Ends MSID:: 125766724 413 |

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