5 constituencies declared "expenditure sensitive" in Punjab

Five Lok Sabha constituencies have been declared as "expenditure sensitive" in Punjab for the forthcoming general elections, Chief Electoral Officer said here today.
"Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Bathinda, Ferozepur and Patiala have been declared as expenditure sensitive for the April 30 Lok Sabha elections for the 13 constituencies in the state," CEO V K Singh told reporters this afternoon.
He said additional observers would be appointed to monitor expenditure in these 5 constituencies.
"Static Surveillance Teams and Expenditure Observers would be more than normal in these constituencies," Singh added.
He said that a total of 1.92 Crore voters, including 90 lakh women, would exercise their right to vote at 21,957 polling stations, including 15,463 in the rural areas.

Singh said that the lowest number of 13,73,898 voters are in Fatehgarh Sahib and maximum 15,44,562 in Patiala constituency.

Area wise the smallest constituency is Ludhiana and the largest is Bathinda, he added.
He said that since the 2012 assembly elections 11 lakh new voters, including 2.5 lakh first timers, have been added to the total electorate.
Answering a question on the complaint made by the state Congress regarding his meeting with DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, whose removal has been demanded by the main opposition party in view of a criminal case pending against him, Singh said the matter is before the Election Commission which is to decide on the entire issue.

"DGP is a constitutional post and meetings are part of official working. At a meeting in the ECI, I was seated beside him (DGP). You can't laugh it off. We have to value the system (of administration)," he said.
The CEO added that the case involving Saini is before the court (the case is pending before the Delhi High Court).
"We don't interfere in such matters," Singh said.