Congress seeks the governor’s intervention to re-elect Amritsar Mayor.

Chandigarh, January 28

Terming the Amritsar Mayor election as a mockery of democracy, the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday sought the Governor of Punjab Gulab Chand Kataria’s intervention to re-elect the Amritsar Mayor in a democratic manner.

“We appeal to the Governor of Punjab to take immediate action to restore people’s faith in democracy,” Bajwa added.

The senior Congress leaders including LoP Partap Singh Bajwa, PPCC president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, OP Soni, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Tript Rajinder Bajwa, and Aruna Chaudhary also submitted a memorandum to the Governor.

In a statement, Bajwa said that the Congress won 41 seats in the 85-member Municipal Corporation of Amritsar. The Congress also had the support of four other councilors. If any party had a legitimate right to the position of mayor, it was the Congress Party. However, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government mercilessly stifled the basic tenets of democracy.

“The AAP government in Punjab blatantly misused government machinery in the mayoral polls as it did in the Panchayat elections and assembly by-elections. The houses of some of the councilors, who were to participate in the meeting, were raided by the Police authorities to harass them and prevent their participation in the process. Those government officials and bureaucrats, who indulged in this brutal murder of democracy will have to face the consequences,” Bajwa warned.

Senior Congress Leader Bajwa said that it was extremely disappointing that the party (AAP) that used to preach democratic values and pledged to carry forward the legacy of Anna Hazare has now stooped so low to elect a mayor with highly undemocratic manners. Anna Hazare, the political master of Arvind Kejriwal, on record, termed Kejriwal corrupt as he drowned under the influence of liquor money.

“The Punjab Congress has already approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court to get the Amritsar mayor poll nullified. We have full faith in the court of law. And justice will prevail at the end of the day,” Bajwa stated.