E-Paper
Repoll at 48 stations in Punjab: Turnout higher than February 4
Voting at 48 polling stations at Punjab’s five assembly segments and the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency was peaceful and without any technical glitch on Thursday.
Voting at 48 polling stations at Punjab’s five assembly segments and the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency was peaceful and without any technical glitch on Thursday.
The Election Commission (EC) had ordered the repolling after malfunctioning of voter-verified paper audit trail machines (VVPATs) and other electronic voting machines (EVMs) during the February 4 voting at stations in Amritsar, Moga, Muktsar, Sardulgarh and Sangrur.
Barring Amritsar where turnout dipped by about 3%, polling at other stations was higher than that on February 4. At the one polling station in Sardulgarh segment in Mansa district, 90.33% votes were polled, making it the highest for the day.
The poll panel said 89.55% voters turned up at the nine stations of Muktsar segment. In Sangrur, where too repolling was held at nine stations, 85.68% turnout was recorded. Moga’s one station saw 81.26% turnout.
In Amritsar district, where polling was held for the LS bypoll as well as the Majitha assembly segment, 76.58% votes were polled in 20 polling stations, according to the EC. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) legislator and minister Bikram Singh Majithia also recast his vote in Majitha.
A fierce triangular contest is on the cards at all the places where repolling was held. Brisk polling was witnessed right from 8am. Candidates mobilised their supporters to reach the polling stations, and long queues were seen particularly at the voting venue in Majitha where Bikram Majithia and Congress candidate Sukhjinder Raj Singh Lalli Majithia had a verbal spat on February 4.
In Muktsar, there are 10 candidates in the fray, including sitting MLA Karan Kaur Brar of the Congress, and Kanwarjit Singh Rozy Barkandi of the SAD.
At Sardulgarh, 1,149 of the 1,242 electors cast their vote; seven more than the number for February 4.
