CHANDIGARH: The voter turnout in the Ludhiana (West) assembly bypoll as per data uploaded till 7 pm was approximately 51.33%, said Punjab chief electoral officer Sibin C. As part of a new initiative, the polling data has been uploaded by the presiding officer at the polling station on the ECINET app.
The voting started at all polling booths at 7 am on Thursday morning. Till 9 am, the polling percentage was just 8.50% as a few people gathered at the booths early in the morning to avoid the hot weather later in the day. Till 11 am, it was 21.51% and then went up to 33.42% till 1 pm, 41.04% till 3 pm and 49.07% till 5 pm.
At many polling booths, candidates and their supporters arranged lunch or snacks, due to which many voters reportedly went around lunch time to cast their vote. A majority of the electorate belongs to the middle class and they did not seem to be in a hurry to reach the polling stations. The Election Commission of India (ECI) provided vehicle assistance to senior citizens and persons with disabilities. The initiative received widespread appreciation.
The Congress has fielded 51-year-old Bharat Bhusan Ashu who served as MLA twice from this seat in 2012 and 2017. He was defeated by Gurpreet Bassi alias Gogi by a margin of 7,512 votes in the 2022 Punjab assembly polls. Ashu was food and civil supplies minister in the previous Congress government.
Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora is the nominee of the ruling AAP. He is a Ludhiana-based industrialist also known for his social work. The 61-year-old runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust. Arora has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2022.
The SAD named Parupkar Singh Ghuman as its candidate for the bypoll. He is a lawyer and the former president of the Ludhiana bar. The BJP fielded Jivan Gupta who is a member of the core committee of the Punjab unit of the party. He was earlier the party's state general secretary.
A total of 194 polling stations were set up with live webcasting facility. Also, designated counters were put up at the entrance of polling stations for voters to securely deposit their mobile devices. These counters were managed by trained volunteers using jute or cloth bag mobile holders.
Due to the recent decision of the ECI to reduce the number of electors in a polling station to 1200, two auxiliary polling stations were set up to facilitate voting. One all-women personnel polling station, one all-PWD personnel polling station and ten model polling stations were also set up.
As per revised instructions of the ECI, candidates were allowed to set up their booths at a distance of 100m from the entrance of the polling stations, which was an added convenience for voters, especially those not carrying their voter information slips.
“In a first-of-its-kind initiative, all polling stations in Ludhiana West have made arrangements for safe mobile phone deposit aims to enhance the voter experience while at the same time upholding the secrecy of voting,” the chief electoral officer said in a post on X.
In the morning, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appealed to voters to cast their votes in the bypoll. "My appeal to the voters of Ludhiana West is that you must exercise your right to vote. You must fulfill your duty for the development and progress of your area. Do not consider today a holiday, definitely go and cast your vote," Mann said in a post on X in Punjabi.
The Ludhiana West assembly seat fell vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi in January. Fourteen candidates are in the fray and 1,75,469 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise including 85,371 women and 10 from the third gender.
The counting of votes will be held on June 23.
