Ward 2 election will not be set aside, says state election commissioner
Over the issue of “wrongly” allowing two villages to vote in the recently conducted Municipal Corporation (MC) elections in ward 2, state election commissioner Dharam Veer on Friday has clarified that the election would not be set aside in the ward.
Over the issue of “wrongly” allowing two villages to vote in the recently conducted Municipal Corporation (MC) elections in ward 2, state election commissioner Dharam Veer on Friday has clarified that the election would not be set aside in the ward.
“I have gone through the orders of the high court as well as that of the director, urban local bodies. When the objections were invited on voter's list, nothing was submitted. The elections were conducted and we also notified the elected councillors. The order of director, urban local bodies have come after the notification of elected councillors,” Dharam Veer said. “The election in ward 2 will not be set aside and if someone is aggrieved he can file an election petition,” he added.
It has come out that residents of two villages, Orian and Bans Havelli in ward 2 were “wrongly” included as voters in the recently concluded Municipal Corporation (MC) elections held on June 2.
Director, urban local bodies, Vijay Dahiya, has now asked DC, Panchkula, to remove them from the MC's voters' list. The MC was created vide a notification dated March 17, 2010, but these villages were not part of the local body. On July 6, 2010, gram panchayat elections were also held at these villages. These villages were not there even in the notification of January 17 of this year vide which delimitation was finalised.
From ward 2, Congress candidate Sangat Singh Nanda emerged victorious. He defeated an independent candidate Ghanshyam by a margin of 343 votes, which was higher than the number of votes in these villages, which is 264.
“I am going to challenge the election on Monday. Even the delimitation is faulty. Ward 1 of Kalka has 9,428 votes, while ward 2 has 16, 485 votes. Why so much of a difference?” asked Ujala Bakshi, BJP candidate from ward 2. Meanwhile, Ghanshyam has said that he is yet to take a decision about challenging the elections.