Kusumjit fair and impartial: Qureishi

Chandigarh, January 24
In what could be another setback for ruling SAD’s fight against Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Kusumjit Sidhu, the Chief Election Commissioner, Shahabuddin Yaqoob Qureishi, today set aside the allegations leveled against her by Akalis and reposed his faith in her.

Talking to The Tribune on the phone, Qureishi said though he had not yet received SAD’s complaint against Kusumjit, he could categorically say that she was “working impartially and without any biases towards any party and I have full faith in her.” “I am yet to see the complaint. I will look at it. But the CEO has been fair and upright in her conduct,” he said. The SAD had complained to the EC yesterday that the CEO was “soft peddling” the complaints filed by the party against the Congress and was showing “promptitude and inventiveness” on the complaints filed by the Congress.

Stating that the SAD always complied with the code of conduct and cooperated with the EC, the Akalis said in the complaint that they were prompted to complain owing to certain recent developments, thereby seeking his (CEC’s) intervention to maintain level playing field in the assembly elections.

The SAD had stated that Amarinder Singh and CEO Kusumjit Sidhu belonged to the same village, Mehraj in Bathinda, and the party wanted to bring it to EC’s notice. The complaint had mentioned specific instances in which Kusumjit had allegedly not taken any action on SAD’s complaints. Meanwhile, Usha Sharma, Special CEO, said the SAD had filed just 10 complaints with the CEO and eight of these were redressed. She added Kusumjit belonged to Mehraj village, but she had no connection with the village now. “Her forefathers used to live there, but no member of her family is staying in that village anymore,” she said.

What SAD says

CEO Kusumjit Sidhu is “soft peddling” the complaints filed by the party against the Congress and is showing “promptitude and inventiveness” on the complaints filed by the Congress. Both the PCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh and Kusumjit belong to the same village, Mehraj in Bathinda

What CEC says

“I am yet to see the complaint but I can say that Kusumjit is working impartially and without any biases towards any party and I have full faith in her”.