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Chandigarh, Nov 11 (IANS) As the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab is trying to retain the seat in a multi-cornered contest, voting for the Tarn Taran Assembly by-election began on Tuesday morning amid tight security arrangements. Twenty-three percent voting was recorded in the first four hours, officials said. Voting will continue till 6 pm. There are 15 candidates in the fray, out of which 5 are seen as strong contenders, setting the stage for a multi-cornered fight on the Panthic seat which has the strongest influence in Sikh religion-politics. Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C said there are 192,838 voters in the constituency, including 100,933 men, 91,897 women and eight third gender voters. “There is no report of any delay in starting the election process,” an election official told IANS here. Counting of votes will take place on November 14. The by-election was necessitated by the death of AAP MLA Kashmir Singh Sohal, who had won the seat with 52,935 votes by defeating Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)’s Harmeet Singh Sandhu. The 15 candidates in the fray include SAD’s Sukhwinder Kaur, BJP’s Harjeet Singh Sandhu, AAP’s Harmeet Singh Sandhu and Congress’s Karanbir Singh. The Chief Electoral Officer said there are 1,357 service voters, 1,657 voters above 85 years of age, 306 NRI voters and 1,488 disabled voters. The number of youth voters aged 18 to 19 years is 3,333. 222 polling stations have been set up at 114 polling station locations, of which 60 are urban and 162 are rural. The Election Commission of India (ECI) had last week directed to suspend Tarn Taran Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ravjot Kaur Grewal for allegedly interfering in the by-election process. The action came after SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal met the Election Commission-appointed observer and submitted a written complaint of alleged abuse of power by the SSP to help the ruling party. SAD alleged that the AAP government was using the state police to influence the by-election process. In the memorandum, the SAD claimed that party workers and leaders from Tarn Taran were “forcibly detained” by police officials ahead of the by-election. He alleged that the official machinery was being misused to target Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa, her family members and SAD supporters. –IANS VG/Red