Chandigarh, Under the ongoing voting for the Punjab Vidhansabha Election 2022, 34.10 percent voters cast their votes till 1 pm on Sunday. Voting is being held for 117 assembly seats in the state amid tight security. Voting started at 8 am and will continue till 6 pm.
A total of 1,304 candidates are in the fray, including 93 women and two transgenders. 2,14,99,804 voters including 1,02,00,996 women will be able to exercise their franchise in the state. Counting of votes will take place on March 10. According to the Chief Electoral Office of Punjab, 34.10 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 1 pm. The twin brothers Sohan Singh and Mohan Singh, known as Sohna-Mohana, cast their separate votes in Amritsar. The bodies of these two brothers are intertwined.
Voter turnout till 1 pm | #PunjabElections2022 : 34.10%#UttarPradeshElections2022 (third phase) : 35.88% pic.twitter.com/bvDKde8Lcc
— ANI (@ANI) February 20, 2022
Punjab Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju recently handed over two separate voter ID cards to Sohan Singh and Mohan Singh. The Election Commission of India had treated Sohna and Mohana as separate voters and decided to give individual voting rights to both of them. Both brothers had turned 18 last year only. Both have voted for the first time. Both the brothers said that they were both very happy to have exercised their franchise.
Officials said that special arrangements were made for Sohna and Mohana so that both of them could vote separately while maintaining their secrecy. Meanwhile, in a village in Zirakpur on the outskirts of Chandigarh, a young woman dressed as a bride cast her vote before attending her wedding ceremony and the groom cast his vote in Rupnagar. Till 1 pm, 30.23 percent in Amritsar, 37.26 percent in Barnala, 38.75 percent in Bathinda, 37.13 percent in Fatehgarh Sahib, 40.59 percent in Fazilka, 37.97 percent in Ferozepur, 39.78 percent in Malerkotla and 39.61 percent in Muktsar were recorded. Queues of voters were seen outside polling stations since morning. Many youths are exercising their franchise for the first time.
Those who voted in the morning in the state included former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, state ministers Manpreet Singh Badal, Pargat Singh and Vijay Inder Singla, Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Punjab unit president Ashwini Sharma. Apart from these, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Bhagwant Mann cast his vote in Mohali for the post of Chief Minister. Mann appealed to the people to vote in large numbers. Apart from this, Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife and former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal also voted. Sukhbir Badal himself came driving and brought his family along to cast his vote in Muktsar.
AAP leader Raghav Chadha tweeted, alleging that a sarpanch tried to influence voters at a polling booth in Guruharsarai. He claimed that some EVMs in Sanaur, Attari and Majitha were faulty. Voters were given masks and gloves at the polling stations and their hands were sanitized. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal also appealed to the voters to cast their votes in large numbers. Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi paid obeisance at religious places in his assembly constituency Chamkaur Sahib in the morning. Parkash Singh Badal (94) after casting his vote said, “I am happy that our democracy is very strong. I will continue to serve my people till my last breath.” Badal family expressed confidence of winning the election. Former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said that she appeals to every person to vote.
In Patiala, former Union Minister Amarinder Singh also expressed confidence of his victory. Asked about the challenge before him in these elections, Singh said, “There is nothing special. We will win.” Amarinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur and daughter Jai Inder Kaur also expressed confidence of the former chief minister’s victory. Congress’s Punjab unit chief Navjot Singh Sidh expressed hope that people would vote in large numbers. In Punjab this time Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)- Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)- Punjab Lok Congress (PLC)-SAD (United) alliance and various farmers There is a multi-cornered contest between the ‘United Samaj Morcha’, the political wing of the organisations.
Channi, Mann, Congress’ Punjab unit president Navjot Singh Sidhu, former chief ministers Amarinder Singh and Parkash Singh Badal and Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal are prominent among the prominent faces contesting the elections. Former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, BJP’s Punjab unit president Ashwini Sharma and former union minister Vijay Sampla are also trying their luck in this election.