Amandeep Kaur, a loyalist of jailed gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, has been elected as the chairperson of the Gurdaspur Zila Parishad (ZP) today.

She contested the elections at the insistence of Rajwinder Kaur, maternal aunt of Jaggu and chairperson of the Dera Baba Nanak Block Samiti.

By virtue of being the block samiti chairman, Rajwinder was present in the House during the elections.

Amandeep’s election to the top post was unanimous as nobody dared to contest against her. Her native village is Bhagwanpur, the same as that of Jaggu Bhagwanpuria.

Officials said from now onwards Rajwinder would virtually be controlling the working of the zila parishad.

Sources said with this development, she had expanded her area of influence from the Dera Baba Nanak Assembly segment to the entire district of Gurdaspur.

The Punjab and Haryana High court had ordered that the elections be held via ballot papers and should be video-graphed. Incidentally, ballot papers were not used as the voting did not take place.

“Rajwinder’s influence in the area is increasing considerably with every passing day. She had decided several days ago that Amandeep would be her nominee. Her decision was not challenged by anybody,” remarked an official.

Interestingly, all elected AAP zila parishad members and party MLAs Sherry Kalsi, Gurdeep Singh Randhawa and Amarpal Singh, had backed the candidature of Amandeep.