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Badals hail HC's verdict on panchayat polls
Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday hailed the verdict of the Punjab and Haryana high court, which dismissed the petition filed by PPCC president Partap Singh Bajwa challenging the delimitation of wards( wardbandi) of Panchayats, notified by the Rural Development and Panchayat department.
Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday hailed the verdict of the Punjab and Haryana high court, which dismissed the petition filed by PPCC president Partap Singh Bajwa challenging the delimitation of wards( wardbandi) of Panchayats, notified by the Rural Development and Panchayat department.
While the CM described the verdict as “defeat for politics of obstructionism”, Sukhbir Singh Badal said that it was ‘ a pathetic self-goal by PPCC president Partap Singh Bajwa, and added that the Congress is now “a compulsive loser, facing defeat in courts of law after defeats in people’s courts.”
The judgment also set the stage for Panchayat polls in the state under the existing delimitation (wardbandi). The verdict came as a big set back to the PPCC president who was hoping to get a verdict against the process of delimitation of wards .
The SAD feels that while the Punjab and Haryana high court judgment has by implication vindicated the stand of the SAD-BJP govt on clean and fair electoral process , it has come as a major rebuff to Bajwa’s demand for a permanent stay on the Panchayat elections.
The court rejected the allegations leveled by PPCC chief against the so-called unfair practices in the delimitation of wards ( Ward-bandi), believe the SAD-BJP leaders.
In a statement issued here, the CM described the verdict as a set back to “politics of obstructionism and negative tactics” and a victory for the democratic and development oriented policies, programmes and priorities of the SAD government. He also expressed the hope that the judgment would bring the Congress back to the path of democratic practices rather than putting hurdles in the way of the exercise of popular will at the grass-root levels.
The CM had a word of benign “patriarchic advice” for the PPCC president, asking him to fight his political battles in the people’s court rather than seeking a refuge behind litigatory escape from facing the electorate.
Whilethe deputy CM described Bajwa's petition “ a political self-goal”. “It seems the Congress is suffering from defeat-addiction and is inventing defeats even where these can be avoided, as for instance in the present case before the honourable court.
The PPCC president presents the picture of a political desperado who is over-reaching himself in order to acquire an artificial aura of new dynamism. He is desperate to prove his relevance and in his over-anxiety, is committing one blunder or the other.
Sukhbir Singh said that verdict carries forward the procession of defeats for the frustrated Congress party in Punjab. “They lost in the courts of the people and now they are losing in the courts of law. Losing is a habit with the Congress now. They have not won a single election since 1997, with just one narrow exception of 2002 Vidhan Sabha poll. And the procession will keep getting longer and longer with a certain defeat staring them in the face in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll.”
