Amarinder warns against mischief during vote count

Congress candidate from Amritsar Amarinder Singh Wednesday cautioned the Election Commission against possible mischief by the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP when votes polled in the Lok Sabha polled are counted Friday.

In a statement, the former Punjab chief minister expressed apprehension that the ruling alliance was aiming at countermanding the counting in Amritsar.

"There in a desperate bid to pre-empt or at least delay the outcome of the election which by now everybody knows is going against the alliance," he said.

Amarinder Singh was locked in a close battle for Amritsar with Bharatiya Janata Party's Arun Jaitley.

Alleging that two Punjab ministers, Anil Joshi (BJP) and Bikram Singh Majithia (Akali Dal), were out to create trouble, Amarinder Singh said Congress workers will go to any extent to counter their mischief.

"Our party workers are already angry over what 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.

"The ruling alliance was well aware of the fact that it was losing 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.

Amarinder Singh said Jaitley's unscheduled visit to Amritsar Tuesday, just three days prior to the counting, gave indication that the ruling alliance could be planning something.

The Congress leader urged the poll panel to deploy extra security in Amritsar to ensure that counting takes place peacefully.