Punjab: 54 pc polling in Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll

Polling in the by-election to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat on Wednesday recorded a voter turnout of about 54 percent, a Punjab election official said.

Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C said the final voting percentage may go up once all the data is compiled and the exact figure will be known on Thursday.

The Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat had registered 63.04 percent polling in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

On Wednesday, the voting began at 8 am and continued till 6 pm amid tight security. Till 9 am, the polling percentage was 5.21 and it rose to 50.27 per cent at 5 pm. Among nine assembly segments of the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat, the percentage turnout in Adampur was 54, Jalandhar Cantt 48.9, Jalandhar Central 49, Jalandhar North 54.4, Jalandhar West 56.4, Kartarpur 54.7, Nakodar 55.4, Phillaur 55.8 and Shahkot 57.4, as per figures available.

The Jalandhar seat fell vacant following the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary due to a cardiac arrest during his party's Bharat Jodo Yatra in January.

The Aam Aadmi Party, Congress, BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal are vying to outdo each other in the Dalit stronghold.

The counting of votes will take place on May 13.

After the polling began, voters, especially elders and women could be seen standing in queues at many polling stations in the constituency.

A few incidents of scuffle and altercations were reported between the AAP and opposition party members at some booths in Phillaur, Shahkot and other areas, officials said.

The Punjab chief electoral officer said the polling remained peaceful.

In a statement, he said, “It was a matter of satisfaction that all polling stations saw a good number of voters.” Opposition party leaders accused the ruling AAP of violating the model code of conduct by deploying ''outsiders'' at several booths, a charge denied by the party.

AAP MLA from Baba Bakala Assembly segment in Amritsar Dalbir Singh Tong was arrested for violating the model code of conduct and was later released on bail, said Sibin C.

The action came after Congress MLA from Shahkot Hardev Singh Laddi Sherowalia alleged that the AAP legislator, being an outsider, was moving in Rupewal area of Shahkot, which is part of the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency.

Sherowalia along with his supporters even blocked the vehicle of the AAP MLA and later called police. The AAP MLA was then taken to Shahkot police station.

Sherowalia even uploaded a video of the incident on social media.

The opposition party leaders said as per the instructions of the Election Commission, outsiders were mandated to leave the constituency after the poll campaign period was over.

Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring accused the AAP leaders of flouting the ECI guidelines to allegedly intimidate voters.

Warring, in a statement, said the Congress has filed a complaint against Tong, Amritsar (West) MLA Jasbir Singh Sandhu, Ludhiana (East) MLA Daljit Singh Grewal Bhola, Ludhiana (West) MLA Gurpreet Gogi, Jaitu MLA Amolak Singh and Amritsar (Central) MLA Ajay Gupta for allegedly being present in the Jalandhar constituency despite ECI guidelines.

Congress candidate Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, through her election agent, too wrote a letter to the CEC, alleging AAP leaders and workers came from outside the constituency for campaigning and were present in almost every village and ward.

Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma too wrote a letter to the chief election commissioner and the Punjab DGP, alleging several AAP MLAs and leaders were present in the constituency and demanded FIRs be registered against them.

Sharma also accused the AAP government of misusing the official machinery.

BJP leader Sarabjit Singh Makkar shared a video, purportedly showing AAP MLA from Ludhiana East seat Daljit Singh Bhola present in Jalandhar Cantt area.

Akali leader Pawan Kumar Tinu alleged some AAP workers from Attari in Amritsar were deployed at one of the booths in Adampur.

There were 16,21,800 eligible voters in the constituency and 19 candidates, including four women, in the fray.

The AAP fielded former MLA Sushil Rinku, who quit the Congress, while the BJP fielded Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, a Dalit Sikh, who quit the Akali Dal to join the saffron party.

Atwal is the son of former Punjab Vidhan Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, who had also joined the BJP.

The SAD fielded its two-time MLA from the Banga seat Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, a doctor. The SAD candidate is backed by its ally Bahujan Samaj Party.

The Simranjit Singh Mann-led Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) has fielded Gurjant Singh.

There were 1,972 polling stations in the constituency and 497 of them were identified as critical.