Dehradun, January 30: Around 45 per cent of the 1.76 crore electorate on Monday exercised their franchise till 2 p.m. in Punjab to elect the 117-member State Assembly.
“The polling percentage is up to 45 per cent till 1400 hours,” Punjab’s Joint Chief electoral Officer Gurkirat Kirpal Singh said in Chandigarh.
Even as reports of minor clashes were received from Bathinda and Ludhiana, the electoral office maintained that the polling was peaceful as no untoward incident had occurred in the State.
Reports said that some persons attacked Ludhiana’s BJP Yuva Morcha General Secretary Sanjay Kapoor following which he received minor injuries.
As per another report, stones were pelted at the Dera Sacha Sauda office located on Amrik Singh road at Bathinda.
However, after police intervention the situation was brought under control.
With the People’s Party of Punjab led by former Minister, Manpreet Badal alleging tampering of some EVMs in Buddhlada, the CEO said, “There were some machines from the reserve stock being adjusted when some member from PPP thought there was some tampering going on, which was not the case“.
Reports said that some machines which developed technical faults resulting in minor disruption of polling process were immediately replaced from the reserved stock.
Serpentine queues were seen at different polling booths across the State, reports said.
The fate of 1,078 candidates, including two Chief Ministerial aspirants Parkash Singh Badal and Amarinder Singh, will be sealed on Monday.
The polling is taking place at 19,841 polling stations across 22 districts of Punjab.
Prominent candidates whose fate would be sealed on Monday include the Chief Minister from his traditional Lambi Assembly seat, his predecessor Amarinder Singh from Patiala city, their sons Sukhbir Singh Badal (Jalalabad) and Raninder Singh (Samana), former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (Lehra), former Punjab top cop P S Gill (Moga), former Principal Secretary to the chief minister D S Guru (Bhadaur) and former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur
Polling picks up in Uttarakhand
Medium to brisk polling was recorded on Monday till 3 p.m. in Uttarakhand, where 788 candidates are trying their luck from 70 Assembly segments.
Only 10 per cent polling was recorded during the first two hours till 10 a.m. but as the day progressed, the number of voters reaching the polling stations increased.
“Nearly 50 per cent polling has been recorded till 1400 hours,” Uttarakhand Chief Electoral Officer Radha Raturi said.
Tight security arrangements have been made for the polling, which has so far been incident-free, she added.
In most of the polling booths, people are seen queuing up to cast their votes.
Over 63 lakh electorates are expected to exercise their franchise in the elections where the ruling BJP is locked in a close fight against Congress.
Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri, former Chief Ministers Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Nityanand Swami and N.D. Tiwari and Assembly Speaker Harbans Kapoor were among the early voters, who cast their votes in the morning.
The elections will also decide the fate of top state leaders, including Khanduri from Kotdwar, Nishank from Doiwala, the leader of the opposition Harak Singh Rawat from Rudraprayag and PCC chief Yashpal Arya from Baajpur seats.
The polling which began at 8 a.m. would end at 5 p.m.
A total of 788 candidates are trying their luck with main contenders BJP and Congress contesting all the 70 seats.
In the outgoing State Assembly, the BJP has a strength of 36 members followed by Congress with 20, BSP with 8 and UKD with 3 while there are three independents.
—PTI