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Amarinder meddling in SGPC poll: Badal

CHANDIGARH, JUNE 28. Alleging that Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had ``plunged the State into a grave constitutional crisis on the SGPC election issue,'' Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Parkash Singh Badal has demanded his resignation.

In a statement issued here, Mr Badal said, ``by subverting all constitutional processes in the conduct of free and fair polls to the apex religious body and by openly encouraging his senior officers to defy the Gurdwara Election Commission (GEC) on a matters of law, Capt Singh has created an unprecedented situation, in which two crucial pillars of our Constitution have come into open confrontation with each other''.

The GEC Chief Commissioner, Justice (retd) J S Sekhon, had on Saturday countermanded the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee elections in three constituencies -- Tarn Taran (93) in district Amritsar, Dhariwal (108) and Gurdaspur (109) -- saying that the State Government had not responded to the Commission's directions which included removal of the Deputy Commissioners of Gurdaspur and Amritsar. The Deputy Commissioners of Gurdaspur and Amritsar had cancelled the nomination papers of senior SAD leaders Alwinderpal Singh Pakhoke, Sucha Singh Langah and Sewa Singh Sekhwan, while the GEC had dismissed the cancellation their orders.

Referring to the indictment of the Punjab Government, especially the Chief Minister, by the Gurdwara Election Commission, Mr Badal said it was clear that the State was not being governed in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

The GEC Chief Commissioner had accused the Punjab Chief Minister of precipitating a grave and unprecedented constitutional crisis in Punjab by refusing to observe the model code of conduct and standing by the ``errant'' Deputy Commissioners. The differences between the State machinery and GEC had come out in the open when the Chief Minister had told a Press conference here June 25 that the GEC Chief Commissioner was interfering in the functioning of the two Deputy Commissioners.

UNI

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