GURDASPUR: Blaming the ruling Congress for allegedly using official machinery to get the nomination papers of its candidates rejected, SAD has announced to boycott zila parishad and block samiti elections in the assembly constituencies of Gurdaspur, Dera Baba Nanak and Fategarh Churian. Also, it has dared the Congress to get their nomination papers restored and contest the battle of ballot with them.SAD’s Gurdaspur unit president Gurbchan Singh Babehali informed TOI on Wednesday that the party had boycotted the panchayati raj institution elections in three assembly constituencies. “There is no point in contesting elections when nomination papers of a majority of our candidates have been rejected under the influence of Congress leaders,” he alleged.He said under the present circumstances, Akalis had no hope of getting majority or chairman or vice-chairman posts in these constituencies. “We are still hopeful in other constituencies including Batala, Qadian and Sri Hargobindpur where the party will contest polls. Since BJP has its majority in Dinanagar constituency so it was up to it to take the decision,” he said.Babehal dared Congress to face Akalis in the elections if it was so confident of its popularity. “As they got nomination papers of our candidates rejected, they should get them accepted and fight the electoral battle,” he said.On the other hand, Gurdaspur district Youth Congress head Baljit Singh Pahara alleged that Akali candidates didn’t want to contest elections and got their own papers rejected by making wrong entries. “Our challenge to Akalis is to contest elections and see how they perform,” said Pahara. Congress wouldn’t even hold meetings in the zones in Gurdaspur district from where Akali candidates would contest elections, he added.Meanwhile, police had registered a case against 14 Akali leaders, including Amarjot Singh, son of Babehali, in case of a scuffle with Congress workers and leaders at the district administrative complex on September 10.

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