Ludhiana bypoll: Cong candidate alleges cops acting as '€˜workers'€™ of AAP

Ludhiana, Jun 18 (PTI) The Congress candidate for the Ludhiana West assembly bypoll, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, on Wednesday accused some police officials of acting as workers of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), saying they were trying to arrest his party worker who stopped a volunteer of the ruling party from allegedly distributing ration in the area.

Polling for the Ludhiana West bypoll will be held from 7 am till 6 pm on June 19 and the counting will be held on June 23. The Ludhiana West assembly seat fell vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January.

Ashu claimed that when a Congress worker called police after spotting one of the AAP volunteers allegedly distributing ration, police tried to pick him up and arrest him instead of registering a complaint.

"The Congress will not tolerate it," he warned the cops, adding, "You cannot escape the law of the land and we will hold you to account." Ashu said, "While I appreciate the non-partisan role of a large section of police and officials in the administration, there are still some black sheep who are trying to be more loyal than the king and maligning the image of police." The senior Congress leader said each and every polling booth will have regular monitoring on Thursday by the common people. "I have urged everyone that wherever they notice anything wrong going on, just record it and share the video with me," he said.

The Congress is winning in any case, he said, and told the police officials that they would unnecessarily waste their efforts by allegedly trying to intimidate the Congress workers.

Ashu demanded the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) for the bypoll.

In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, he sought immediate and adequate measures to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in the poll.

"It is a matter of grave concern that the state police machinery is being misused under political pressure to unduly favour the candidate of the ruling party in Ludhiana," he said. PTI COR CHS KSS KSS