CHANDIGARH: A voter turnout of 63 per cent was recorded till 6 pm in the by-elections to four assembly segments in Punjab on Wednesday, according to Punjab Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sibin C.
These by-polls to the Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal and Barnala assembly segments were necessitated after the incumbent lawmakers were elected to the Lok Sabha. Of the four assembly segments, Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak and Chabbewal were earlier held by the Congress, and the Barnala seat by the AAP.
The precise figures of the total turnout will be updated by tomorrow morning once all polling parties return to the collection centres and final data entry is completed.
The CEO shared that as per recorded data till 6 pm, the highest turnout of 81 per cent was recorded in Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak recorded 63 per cent turnout, while Barnala saw 54 per cent and Chabbewal 53 per cent turnout.
At Dera Pathana village in Dera Baba Nanak segment, a clash took place between the AAP and Congress supporters. Gurdaspur Member of Parliament Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who is the husband of Congress candidate Jatinder Kaur, alleged that some “outsiders” at the behest of the AAP thrashed his party worker in the village and also accused the police of not taking action. The workers of both the warring factions engaged in heated arguments. A heavy police force was deputed at the site to defuse the situation.
The ruling AAP would like to register victories after its dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections in the three concerned contests while the Congress and the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) are also out for triumph in these by-polls.
From the hot assembly seat of Gidderbaha, Amrita Warring, the wife of Punjab Congress president and Ludhiana Member of Parliament Amrinder Singh Raja Warring in contesting against former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal of BJP and Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon of AAP. Earlier this seat was represented by Warring himself.
The other assembly seat where the focus is Dera Baba Nanak from here Jatinder Kaur wife of Gurdaspur Member of Parliament and former deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa is pitched against Ravikaran Singh Kahlon of BJP and Gurdeep Singh Randhawa of AAP.
While from Barnala assembly segment Kewal Singh Dhillon of BJP is facing Kuldeep Singh Kaka Dhillon of Congress, Harinder Singh Dhaliwal of AAP, Govind Singh Mann of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and AAP rebel and Independent candidate Gurdeep Singh Batth. This assembly seat fell vacant after Gurmeet Singh Hayer, the local MLA from the AAP and state’s sports and youth affairs minister was elected from the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat. Hayer won the Barnala seat in the 2017 and 2022 assembly polls.
On the Chabbewal seat it is Ishank Kumar Chabbewal of AAP son of Hoshiarpur MP Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal as earlier this seat was presented by Raj Kumar who was then in Congress before lok sabha polls joined the AAP and then contested and won from Hosharpur. The other candidates in the fray are Sohan Singh Thandal of BJP who was earlier in the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
SAD has opted to stay away from these by-polls. 45 candidates, including three women, are in the fray for the bypolls. A total of 6.96 lakh voters, including 3.31 lakh women, are eligible to exercise their franchise at 831 polling stations. At present, the AAP has 91 MLAs in the 117-member Punjab assembly, while the Congress has 15, Shiromani Akali Dal three, BJP two, and the Bahujan Samaj Party one. One seat is held by an Independent MLA.