The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday announced the dates for the assembly elections in Punjab. The voting for the 117-members assembly will be held one phase on February 14, 2022. The counting of the votes will take place on March 10, 2022, announced the chief election commissioner. The term of the current assembly elected in 2017 will expire in March.
Here's the complete schedule for Punjab assembly polls:
Issue of notification: January 21
Last date of notification: January 28
Scrutiny of nomination: January 29
Last date of withdrawal of candidature: January 31
Date of poll: February 14
Counting of votes: March 10
“As Covid cases soared in view of Omicron variant, ECI held meetings with Union Health Secretary & Home Secretary, experts, and health secretaries of States. After taking these views and ground situation, ECI decided to announce polls with safety norms in place," said the chief election commissioner said in the press conference.
The elections will be held amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic and the rising cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Notably, along with the nationwide surge, Punjab is also seeing a jump in its daily cases of viral disease. On Friday, Punjab reported 2,901 fresh infections on Friday while one more person succumbed to the disease, according to a medical bulletin.
In the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, Congress won an absolute majority in the state by winning 77 seats and ousted the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party government after 10 years. In a major highlight of the polls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerged as the second-largest as it won 20 seats in 117-member Punjab Legislative Assembly.
{{/usCountry}}In the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, Congress won an absolute majority in the state by winning 77 seats and ousted the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party government after 10 years. In a major highlight of the polls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerged as the second-largest as it won 20 seats in 117-member Punjab Legislative Assembly.
{{/usCountry}}The SAD could only manage to win 15 seats while the BJP secured 3 seats.
This year the battle for Punjab is more intense as the state has been gripped with multiple issues such as farmers protests, while the Congress is dealing with bitter infighting.
In September, Amarinder Singh resigned from the post of the chief minister and subsequently from the party. He has now formed his own party Punjab Lok Congress and is set to contest the elections from all 117 seats in alliance with the BJP.