Polling commences in Punjab, Chandigarh

The polling to nine Lok Sabha seats of Punjab and the lone Chandigarh constituency commenced on a slow pace today.     

As the clock struck 7am, the few electorates reached the polling booth to exercise their franchise, an election office spokesman said here adding that the polling will be held till 1700 hours.     

Punjab's nine seats - Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Khadoor Sahib, Jalandhar (reserve), Fatehgarh Sahib (reserve), Hoshiarpur (reserve), Anandpur Sahib, Ludhiana and Faridkot (reserve) - are going to polls along with other states in the fifth and final phase of countrywide election to Lok Sabha seats today.     

An estimated 1.16 crore voters will seals the fate of 139 candidates in Punjab, including ten women and 65 independents.     

The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and its ally BJP and opposition Congress and the BSP have fielded their candidates on all the nine seats.

Prominent among those whose fate will be sealed included Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu of BJP from Amristar, actor-turned-politican Vinod Khanna of BJP from his traditional bastion Gurdaspur, Lok Sabha deputy speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal of SAD from Fatehgarh Sahib seat, sugar baron Rana Gurjit Singh of Congress from Khadoor Sahib, former Punjab Governor Lt Gen (retd) B K N Chhibber of BSP from Amritsar, former Punjab Congress chief Mohinder Singh Kaypee of Congress from Jalandhar (reserve) seat and singer-turned-politician Hans Raj Hans of SAD also from Jalandhar.     

Also in the fray are Punjab Youth Congress chief Ravneet Singh Bittu from Anandpur Sahib, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's political advisor Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema of SAD also from Anandpur Sahib, AICC member Manish Tewari from Jalandhar seat, former bureaucrat Som Parkash of BJP from Hoshiarpur, and sitting Congress MLA O P Soni from Amritsar seat.     

While Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Khadoor Sahib constituencies have been declared hyper-sensitive, Faridkot and Ludhiana seats are declared sensitive by the Election Commission.     

Officials said that as many as 1,099 and 2,548 polling stations have been identified as hyper-sensitive and sensitive respectively.     

Out of total 13 Lok Sabha seats of Punjab, four - Bathinda, Patiala, Sangrur and Ferozepur went to polls on May 7.     

Meanwhile, the fate of sitting MP and union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal of Congress, former MP Satya Pal Jain of BJP and Harmohan Dhawan of BSP and 11 other candidates will be sealed by around six lakh voters in Chandigarh constituency.