Except polling station, EC bans Punjab minister's movement in Amritsar

Coming down hard on Punjab cabinet minister Bikram Singh Majithia, the Election Commission Monday ordered that his movement will be restricted to the polling station area from where he is an elector till polling ends.

Chief electoral officer (CEO) V.K.Singh said here that the poll panel has ordered that Majithia would not visit any other part of any assembly segment of the Amritsar parliamentary constituency.

"The commission has also directed to keep his movements under surveillance and video-graphed with immediate effect," Singh said.

The ban on Majithia's movement by the EC came just as the campaigning ended for Wednesday's (April 30) polling in Punjab.

Majithia, the main campaign manager of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, is the brother-in-law of Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and ruling Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal. He is also the Youth Akali Dal president in Punjab.

Jaitley is locked in a fierce electoral battle with former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, who is the Congress candidate.

The Congress and Amarinder Singh had complained to the EC that Majithia was allegedly intimidating voters in the Amritsar parliamentary constituency.

The EC also directed that Amritsar Rural's Senior Superintendent of Police Gurpreet Singh Gill be transferred and posted at Punjab Police headquarters in Chandigarh.

The Congress had complained that Gill was openly influencing people in Amritsar's rural areas to favour the BJP candidate.

Polling for all 13 seats in Punjab takes place Wednesday.