The SAD Saturday urged theElection Commission to declare the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency as hyper sensitive and demanded deployment of paramilitary forces to prevent the ruling Congress from using any "unfair means" to win the seat.The opposition party feared that the Congress could "misuse" police force to secure a win from the high profile seat.SAD's Harsimrat Kaur Badal is pitted against Gidderbaha MLA and Congress candidate Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, AAP's Baljinder Kaur and Punjabi Ekta Party nominee Sukhpal Singh Khaira.In a letter to the chief election commissioner, SAD senior vice president Daljit Singh Cheema accused the Congress of working on its "common minimum goal" of defeating Harsimrat Badal by using "all types of unfair means".He claimed that the top leadership of the Punjab Congress, including Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and state Finance minister Manpreet Badal, were using unfair means to take revenge for their defeats as the CM's son Raninder Singh and Manpreet Badal lost to Harsimrat Badal in the 2009 and 2014 elections, respectively."The local police are stopping SAD leaders and workers from even campaigning at the behest of ruling party," he alleged.Cheema claimed that Warring would bring his supporters to create ruckus on the polling and counting day.There are a total of 1,729 booths in the constituency, out of which 559 has been declared as sensitive by the district administration, he said."If one-third booths are under the direct control of the state government then it definitely makes this constituency a fit case for deployment of paramilitary forces," he said.Cheema said the Punjab police was least expected to "act fairly" in the elections as it was "working under pressure" of the Congress.
