Ahead of zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday accused the ruling Congress of depriving caste certificates to Scheduled Caste and backward class candidates of rival parties.

SAD spokesman Daljeet Singh Cheema, in a letter, urged the State Election Commissioner to ensure that candidates were issued caste certificates within 12 hours so that no aspirant remained deprived of his right to contest from reserved SC and BC seats for zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls.

Cheema said elections were announced on 29 August in the afternoon and publicised the next day through newspapers only. Since then the government offices in the state have remained closed and would open only on 4 September when the process of nomination would start. That would leave aspirants with no time to obtain mandatory certificates, he argued.

The SAD leader said that all concerned officers from district magistrate down to kanungo and patwari be directed to ensure that such certificates were delivered instantly or not later than 12 hours.

Cheema suggested that if thay was not possible, candidates should be allowed to file nominations along with an affidavit with an explicit provision to submit caste certificate later.

Expressing shock and surprise, Cheema said the district administration notified the reserved SC and BC seats for the ensuing polls only after announcement of the election schedule. “Moreover, the voting lists have not been made available till date to political parties. How can anybody file nomination papers without checking his name on voters’ list?”, he asked.

This hasty action only smacks of a conspiracy of the ruling party Congress to deny opportunity to the rivals to contest the polls by denying its rivals the mandatory certificates and the Election Commission had willy-nilly become a partner in the nefarious game.

“These suspicions are reinforced as the poll dates were announced a day after the drama in Punjab State Assembly where the ruling party in league with AAP did its best to tarnish the name of SAD and its leaders,”: he added.

Cheema also resented that the Election Commission had announced the poll schedule in gross violation of established precedent of convening an all-party meeting to have their inputs on poll arrangements.