Amarinder Singh warns EC of possible mischief during vote counting

Former Punjab chief minister and Congress candidate for Amritsar Captain (retired) Amarinder Singh has warned the Election Commission of India about the possibility of Akali-BJP leaders and workers tampering with the vote counting process that could lead to the countermanding of counting.

Singh said in case any such mischief is attempted by the Akali-BJP combine, and particularly by Anil Joshi and Bikram Singh Majithia, the two henchmen of BJP candidate Arun Jaitley, on the day of counting, Congress workers will retaliate.

"Our party workers are already angry over what has happened during the past few days, and they will not take any time to hit back and hit hard in case of any provocation of which there are strong chances", he warned.

Singh revealed that he had learnt that the ruling alliance is well aware of the fact that it is going to lose in Amritsar.

"We have reports that they can resort to some mischief, forcing the counting to be countermanded to postpone the obvious outcome, which we will not allow at any cost," he said, and added that the apprehensions had further been strengthened after Jaitley's unscheduled visit to Amritsar on Tuesday just three days prior to the counting.

He asked the Election Commission to deploy extra security in Amritsar.

He hoped that the Election Commission was seized of the matter, given the hypersensitive nature of the Amritsar parliamentary constituency and the probable electoral outcome there.

He also asked local officials not to succumb to pressure from the state government and to perform their duties professionally.