Begin typing your search above and press return to search.

AGP smells a rat in declaration of unopposed winner in Darrang

By Correspondent

MANGALDAI, Dec 1 - At a time when campaigning for the ensuing Panchayat polls in Darrang has been picking up, the Darrang district committee of Asom Gana Parishad has moved the State Election Commission alleging partiality and political influence regarding the list of candidates declared winner unopposed following cancellation of nominations of a few candidates of the major regional party of the State.

Talking to this Correspondent, Swaraj Deka, secretary of AGP�s Darrang district committee claimed that there was partiality and political influence in the process of cancellation of nominations and declaration of winning unopposed in regard to GP Ward members in No. 11 Kurua GP under Sipajhar Development Block (AP).

The Authorised Officer (AO) in that GP, i.e., Atul Bora , who is also the Development Officer of that Block, probably played a partial role under pressure from the ruling political party and rejected the nomination of Parul Das, the AGP candidate for Ward No. 10 of No. 11 Kurua GP a couple of days after her nomination had been declared valid by the same officer on November 18 following scrutiny and process of nomination withdrawal on November 19 last.

The �biased� role of the AO thus paved the way for the lone BJP candidate to be declared as the uncontested winner. The same AO has earlier rejected nomination of three other AGP candidates, namely Ramen Das, Nayanmani Das and Navalata Das for Ward No. 1, Ward No. 6 & Ward No. 8 respectively allegedly without any justification only to help the ruling BJP candidates.

�We moved the Deputy Commissioner with a written complaint, though to no avail. Again on Friday, we moved the State Election Commissioner via e-mail and requested him to ensure justice.� AGP district secretary Deka maintained.

Meanwhile on being asked, the DC admitted that there may be some sort of carelessness on the part of the AO. However, he ruled out the possibility of any change in the decision of the AO, who has been empowered under relevant rules to decide on acceptance and denial of nominations under his respective jurisdiction.

�What I feel is lack of necessary care on the part of the AO which resulted in leaking information from the official file. However, now it is beyond my power to change the earlier decisions,� admitted DC Barman.

On the other hand, the complainants are yet to receive any response from the State Election Commission till the time of filing this report.

Next Story