Cong wants MC polls in Amritsar to be cancelled

A day after the verbal spat between revenue minister Bikram Majithia and BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Congress has also joined the issue, demanding the cancellation of the recently-held Amritsar MC polls.

In a press statement, Congress leader Jasbir Singh Dimpa said, "Sidhu's statement that the Akalis allegedly used undemocratic means in the recent MC polls has exposed the way the elections were held here. We are exploring the options to file a PIL in the Punjab and Haryana high court. We have been saying all along that there was large-scale rigging in the polls and Sidhu has vindicated our stand."

Dimpa said the Congress would take a legal recourse and demand cancellation of the MC polls.

The Congress leader also demanded an explanation from chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sidhu's statement that "the results would have been different had the elections been held under the Election Commission of India.

Congress leaders OP Soni, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Harpartap Ajnala, Harminder Singh Gill and district Congress chief Jugal Kishore Sharma also apprised Delhi chief minister Shiela Dixit of the matter and requested her to take up the issue with the high command in Delhi.

On Saturday, Sidhu and Majithia indulged in a verbal spat. Majithia said SAD needed no lessons on coalition dharma from Sidhu and had Akalis not followed the dharma in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Sidhu would not have been the MP of Amritsar.

To this, the BJP minister said that had the BJP not got 19 seats in 2007 and 12 in the recent assembly polls, Majithia would not have been the minister.

Sidhu had also alleged that the Akalis had supported some independent candidates leading to the defeat of the BJP candidates, whereas Majithia denied this and asked for proof.

Cracks in the alliance have begun to appear since the recent MC polls.