Lagatar24 Desk
Chandigarh, Feb 20: Punjab recorded a voter turnout of 17.77 percent at 11 am on Sunday in the ongoing Assembly elections.
According to the Election Commission of India, Sri Muktsar Sahib witnessed the highest voter turnout of 23.34 percent followed by Fazilka (22.55 percent) and Malerkotla (22.07 percent) till 11 am. Pathankot recorded the lowest percentage of voter turnout of 12.44 percent.
Further, Sahibjada Ajit Singh Nagar saw a 13.15 percent voter turnout. Jalandhar reported 14.30 percent voter turnout, Ludhiana recorded 15.58 percent while Moga registered 16.29 percent polling. Meanwhile, Hoshiarpur recorded 18.88 percent while Kapurthala recorded 16.03 percent. Mansa recorded 19.75 per cent. Moga recorded 16.29 percent. Voting for 117 Assembly seats in Punjab began amid tight security arrangements on Sunday morning. Polling started at 8 am and will continue till 6 pm.
A total of 1,304 candidates, including 93 women and two transgenders, are in the fray for the high-stake electoral contest. There are 2,14,99,804 voters, including 1,02,00,996 women. There are 24,740 polling stations, of which 2,013 have been identified as critical while 2,952 are vulnerable, said Punjab Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju.
Punjab is witnessing a multi-cornered contest among the Congress, AAP, SAD-BSP, BJP-PLC-SAD (Sanyukt), and the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha, a political front of various farmer bodies.
The Shiromani Akali Dal is contesting the polls in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
The BJP is fighting the elections in alliance with Amarinder Singh-led Punjab Lok Congress and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa-led SAD (Sanyukt).
The SSM is contesting the polls with Haryana Bharatiya Kisan Union (Chaduni) leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni-led Sanyukt Sangharsh Party.
Prominent faces in the fray include Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Aam Aadmi Party’s chief ministerial face Bhagwant Mann, Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu, former CMs Amarinder Singh, Parkash Singh Badal, and Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma and former Union minister Vijay Sampla are also in the fray.
A total of 700 companies of the central armed police force besides the state police personnel have been deployed. There are 196 pink polling stations for women while 70 polling stations will be managed by persons with disabilities (PwD). In the wake of COVID-19, arrangements have been made for masks, gloves, and sanitizers at polling stations and also for the disposal of Covid waste material.
The results will be declared on March 10. In the 2017 Assembly polls in the state, the Congress had won an absolute majority by winning 77 seats, ousting the SAD-BJP government, which had been in power for 10 years.
