Battle lines are drawn with total 278 candidates in fray for 13 parliamentary constituencies of Punjab for May 19 elections.
The Election Commission on late Thursday night has also cleared the decks for the candidature of Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) candidate from Sri Anandpur Sahib Narinder Singh Shergill, after the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
For the next fortnight, the political stalwarts from the State and also the national leaders of all parties would land in Punjab to give an impetus to the poll campaigning.
May 2, Thursday, was the last date for withdrawal of nominations, and 12 candidates withdrew their nomination papers.
The State Chief Electoral Officer Dr S Karuna Raju said that total 385 candidates had filed their nominations papers for 13 parliamentary constituencies of the state, and during scrutiny, 297 nominations were found valid.
Maximum 30 candidates are in fray from Amritsar including BJP’s Hardeep Puri, Congress’ sitting MP Gurjit Singh Aujla, AAP’s Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal; while the minimum eight candidates would fight it out in Hoshiarpur, including two babus — BJP’s Som Parkash and PDA’s Khushi Ram, and two medicos — Congress’ Dr Raj Kumar, and AAP’s Dr Ravjot Singh.
This time, the Lok Sabha election in Punjab would be a multi-cornered contest as besides the traditional political players, AAP and Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA), comprising six political outfits and splinter groups, would add a new dimension.
Dr Raju said that after withdrawal, total of 15 candidates are left in fray for Gurdaspur, 30 for Amritsar, 19 for Khadoor Sahib, 19 for Jalandhar (SC), eight for Hoshiarpur (SC), 26 for Anandpur Sahib, 22 for Ludhiana, 20 for Fatehgarh Sahib, 20 candidates for Faridkot (SC), 22 for Ferozepur, 27 for Bathinda, 25 for Sangrur, and 25 for Patiala.
“Now 278 candidates are left in fray. Out of total 2,07,81,211 voters in Punjab, 1,09,50735 are male and 98,29,916 are female voters and 560 voters of third gender,” he said, adding that the voting would be held on May 19 (Sunday) from 7 am to 6 pm.
There are 23,213 polling stations on 14460 polling locations from which 249 booth are identified as critical, 719 as sensitive, 509 as hyper sensitive, and 12,002 polling booths will be covered under web casting on polling day and counting of votes would begin on May 23 Thursday from 8 am.
On stake are the SAD president Sukhbir Badal, who is contesting from Ferozepur, his Union Minister wife Harsimrat Badal from Bathinda, Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar from Gurdaspur against the actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol who is contesting as SAD-BJP candidate, former Union Minister Preneet Kaur from Patiala, Union Minister Hardeep Puri from Amritsar, AAP Punjab president Bhagwant Mann from Sangrur, Punjab Ekta Party president Sukhpal Khaira from Bathinda, Patiala MP Dr Dharamvir Gandhi from Patiala, among others.
WOMEN CANDIDATES
almost all political parties battling for the equality for womenfolk, the final list of contesting candidates for May 19 elections have revealed their real intent.
Out of the total 278 candidates, only 26, only nine percent, are women. Out of these, the four prominent political outfits have fielded just seven women candidates.
Congress has trusted its tried and tested female candidate, Preneet Kaur, who has wrested Patiala for the four times at earlier occasions. SAD and AAP has fielded two female candidates each — SAD’s Bibi Jagir Kaur from Khadoor Sahib, and Harsimrat Badal from Bathinda; and AAP’s Neena Mittal from Patiala and Prof Baljinder Kaur from Bathinda.
Giving tough battle to the former SGOC president Bibi Jagir Kaur from the panthic seat of Khadoor Sahib is the first-timer human rights activist Bibi Paramjit Kaur Khalra, a Punjab Ekta Party candidate contesting as PDA’s joint candidate.
PDA would also be represented by another female candidate, CPI’s Daswinder Kaur, in Amritsar. Besides, eight female candidates are in fray as independents.