Peaceful polling underway in Punjab

State seeing multi-cornered contest with Congress, AAP, Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance, and coalition of BJP and ex-CM Capt Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress as key players

After weeks of high-voltage poll campaigning, the Punjab assembly elections got underway to a peaceful start at 8am on Sunday with an estimated 2.14 crore voters set to decide the fate of 1,304 candidates in the fray from 117 constituencies.

Voters standing in queue to cast their votes outside the government school in Bathinda district’s Naruana village on Sunday morning. (Sanjeev Kumar/HT)

Punjab is seeing a multi-cornered contest this time with the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance, and the coalition of the Bharatiya Janata Party and former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress as key players.

The Congress is seeking another term under Charanjit Singh Channi’s leadership, while the SAD, which has formed an alliance with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), is hoping for a comeback after 10 years. The AAP, which emerged as the second-largest party in the 2017 elections has highlighted its government’s works in Delhi to urge voters for a chance in Punjab under Bhagwant Mann.

Channi is contesting from Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur. Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu is facing SAD’s Bikram Singh Majithia, AAP’s Jeevanjyot Kaur and BJP’s Jagmohan Singh Raju in Amritsar (East).

AAP Lok Sabha MP from Sangrur and the party’s CM face Bhagwant Mann is contesting from Dhuri seat.

Punjab Lok Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh is seeking re-election from Patiala constituency.

Five-time Chief Minister and senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal is in the fray from the Lambi seat, while SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal is in the electoral contest from Jalalabad.

The BJP has fielded its Punjab unit chief Ashwani Kumar Sharma from Pathankot constituency.

Punjab chief electoral officer S Karuna Raju said there are 2,14,99,804 voters in Punjab eligible to exercise their franchise. He said that there are 1304 candidates--1209 male, 93 women and two transgenders are in the fray. Of the 1,304 candidates, 231 are from national parties, 250 from state parties, 362 from unrecognised parties, and 461 are Independent candidates.

He said that 315 contesting candidates have criminal antecedents.

He said 24,689 polling stations and 51 auxiliary polling stations have been established at 14,684 polling station locations of which 2,013 are identified as critical, while 2,952 are vulnerable pockets.

There are 1,196 model polling stations, 196 women managed polling stations and 70 PwD managed polling stations. As many as 28,328 ballot units and 24,740 EVM-VVPATs are being used in this election.

Apart from three special state observers, the ECI has appointed 65 general observers, 50 expenditure observers and 29 police observers, who are keeping close vigil. As many as 2,083 sector officers have been deployed to assist polling parties.

In the 2017 Punjab assembly polls, the Congress won 77 seats in the 117-member House, whereas the Shiromani Akali Dal could win only 18 seats. The AAP emerged as the second-largest party with 20 seats.