30-35% polling in Punjab

Between 30 to 35 per cent of total 52.75 lakh electorate exercised their franchise till 1300 hours in four Lok Sabha constituencies, including the hyper-sensitive seats of Bathinda and Patiala, in Punjab today. 

Barring an incident of vandalism by activists of Students Organisation of India (SOI), youth wing of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in which five persons, including four Congress workers, were injured outside a polling booth near Barnala bus stand, the polling to the four seats Bathinda, Patiala, Ferozepur and Sangrur is by and large peaceful, officials said here.   

The SOI activists also uprooted tents of Congress and Lok Bhalai party set up outside the booth. The SOI activists were brandishing nacked swords and created panic among voters for a brief period. Braving a hot and torrid conditions, voters are coming out in large numbers at polling booths to exercise their franchise, reports here said.  

The rest of the nine Lok Sabha seats of Punjab will go to polls in the last phase on May 13. According to the officials the polling is brisk in the state and no major untwoard incident is reported from anywhere.

While Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's daughter-in-law Harsimrat Kaur is the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate from Bathinda, his predecessor Amarinder Singh's son Raninder Singh is the Congress nominee from the same seat.    

Besides, Amarinder's wife Preneet Kaur is hoping for a hat-trick from her traditional Patiala seat. She is pitted against SAD's Prem Singh Chandumajra. Among the other seats, Sangrur is witnessing a multi-cornered contest among sitting MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (SAD), former Punjab Youth Congress President Vijay Inder Singla, former union minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia (Lok Bhalai Party) and former MP Simranjit Singh Mann (SAD-Amritsar).   

AICC member Jagmeet Singh Brar is slugging it out against Sher Singh Ghubiaya of SAD in a direct contest from Ferozepur Lok Sabha seat. While a resurgent Congress is hoping to improve its tally in the polls, SAD-BJP combine is expecting to repeat the performance  of 2004. Both Badal and Amarinder have claimed to make a clean sweep by their party's in the polls.

In 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Congress had bagged two seats, while SAD-BJP combine won 11 out of the total 13 seats in the state.