Sultanour Lodhi MC chief poll deferred again

SULTANPUR LODHI: Election to the post of Sultanpur Lodhi municipal committee president was postponed once again - this time on security fears as there was apprehension of a scuffle.
Not a single SAD councillor had reached the meeting venue for the polls, which was scheduled at 11am in the MC office. The postponement of the election was announced after the scheduled meeting time.The election will now be held on Sunday. Congress councillors, who had been taken out for a picnic to hill stations in Himachal Pradesh by local Congress MLA Navtej Singh Cheema fearing poaching by the SAD, were taken to the meeting hall on Saturday morning.
"While we were waiting for the meeting to start after reaching there we were informed around 11.30am that the meeting was postponed due to security reasons as the administration apprehended violence," Cheema said. "SAD councillors staying away from the venue made it clear that they knew in advance that the meeting would be postponed. It is clearly being done at the behest of the ruling party," Cheema alleged.
Earlier, the election was scheduled on Monday but later deferred at the eleventh hour on the pretext that all the councillors could not be informed of the meeting.
The meeting was postponed by returning officer and SDM Rupinderjeet Brar after DSP Devinder Singh informed him that there was not enough force to ensure smooth conduct of the polls. When asked, the DSP said the SDM had asked for more force as there could be law and order situation. "We then informed him that deployment of additional force was not possible as already the available force had been deployed. We will now get extra force from other places on Sunday," he said.
The meeting has now been scheduled for 1pm on Sunday. In the house of 13 councillors, seven are of Congress while one independent has also joined them and SAD has only five councilors.