NEW DELHI, Apr 6: After the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Haryana unit alleged that its application to hold two election campaign programmes in the Kaithal parliamentary constituency was rejected by the “concerned authorities” with “abusive language” in the reply, Deputy Commissioner of Kaithal Prashant Panwar on Saturday suspended five people for their suspected involvement in the matter.
A First Information Report (FIR) has also been lodged against the accused persons, the Deputy Commissioner posted on social media platform X.
“An incident was reported on 4th April 2024 wherein the user ID of Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) Kaithal, Parliamentary Constituency (PC) Kurukshetra, was misused by hitherto unknown persons to access the ENCORE portal, and make derogatory posts therein,” he said.
He added that the FIR and action of suspension were lodged against the accused with the cyber police. An enquiry has also been initiated into the matter.
Referring to the incident as “shameful” and “derogatory,” Sushil Gupta, Haryana unit chief of the AAP and the party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Kurukshetra, said the party had sought permission for two election-related programmes in Kaithal for Sunday, April 7. The application was sought via the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Suvidha portal for political parties and their candidates.
The ECI’s Suvidha candidate mobile application assists candidates with the nomination and permission processes during elections, with decisions on them taken by district officials.
“Our first application was rejected with a comment — ‘ko ni denge’ (we will not give),” Mr Gupta said. He added that a “highly abusive word” was used as a comment while rejecting the second application. The polling in Haryana will be held on May 25.
(Manas Dasgupta)