Claiming 'irregularities' in the nomination process and apprehending irregularities during the counting of votes, the Punjab Congress is demanding to postpone the panchayat polls by 3 weeks, which are scheduled for October 15.
The grand old party's delegation headed by the leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly and senior party leader Partap Singh Bajwa, on Monday met the Punjab State Election Commissioner here and urged that the polls be deferred by three weeks.
Elections to 13,229 gram panchayats are slated to be held on Tuesday.
Bajwa alleged that "massive irregularities" were committed during the nomination process as nominations of many opposition-back candidates were "wrongfully" rejected.
Many candidates were not given the no-objection certificates (NOC) required during the nominations filing, he alleged.
Many people, whose nominations were "wrongfully" rejected, have already approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, he said.
"We want the election process to be postponed by three weeks. We do not want cancellation of the panchayat elections," he said.
Bajwa also claimed that the voters' list of January 1, 2023 has been considered for the panchayat elections instead of the voters' list of January 1, 2024 which was considered during the Lok Sabha polls.
Many voters, who voted during the Lok Sabha polls, would not be able to cast votes in the panchayat elections, Bajwa said.
Bajwa alleged that the ruling AAP had printed fake ballot papers in each village for the posts of 'sarpanch' and 'panch' for "rigging" the panchayat elections.
"We demand that holograms should be fixed on ballot papers," he said.
"We also have apprehension of massive irregularities during the counting of votes," he further said.