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Chandigarh, Nov 11 (IANS) Punjab’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is trying to retain the seat in a multi-cornered contest, with 59 per cent voting recorded till 5 pm on Tuesday in the Tarn Taran assembly by-election. The officers provided this information.
Twenty-three percent voting was recorded in the first four hours, officials said.
There are 15 candidates in the fray, of which 5 are seen as strong contenders, setting the stage for a multi-cornered fight on the Panthic seat, in which the influence of Sikh religion-politics is strongest.
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 Harmeet Singh Sandhu of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
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 also 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 were 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.
–IANS
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