Chandigarh, May 13 (Inditop) Radical Sikh leaders from the Dal Khalsa Wednesday exercised their franchise but rejected all candidates and parties under provision 49-O of the election code.
Dal Khalsa spokesman Kanwarpal Singh, while exercising his franchise under 49-O rejected all the candidates in Amritsar parliamentary constituency.
In his remarks while using the “no vote” provision, Kanwarpal Singh wrote: “None candidate deserve to lead the electorate concerned as they were product of the corrupt system that has ruined the lives of the people in one or the other way.”
Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is pitted against former mayor of Amritsar Om Prakash Soni of the Congress in a tough contest for the Amritsar seat.
On the Hoshiarpur (reserved) parliamentary seat, Dal Khalsa president Harcharanjit Singh Dhami exercised his franchise through provision 49-O at Piplanwala village. He refused to vote for any candidate saying that none of them were deserving.
Elaborating the reasons for doing so, he said that instead of raising real issues of Punjab like looting of its river waters, uncontrolled influx of migrants, suicide deaths of farmers and falling standards of rural health and education, voters were being fooled on flimsy grounds with “Dal-Atta” schemes.
Under the election rules, invoking provision 49-O, a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his identity, get his finger marked and convey to the presiding election officer that he doesn’t want to vote for anyone.
rounak