Punjab bypolls: Gidderbaha candidates start day with rituals as votes are cast for 'hot' seat 

Of the four Punjab Assembly segments going to the bypolls on Wednesday, Gidderbaha is considered as the hot seat. With stalwarts in the battle, its triangular contest saw high-pitched and aggressive campaigning among the state's ruling AAP, the main opposition Congress and the BJP.

As the day started, Congress candidate Amrita Warring with husband Raja Warring went to a gurdwara to seek blessings, while AAP candidate Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon took blessings from his mother.

BJP candidate Manpreet Badal was seen sitting at his booth set up near a polling station, carefully monitoring the situation at Lundewala village.

Polling for the four Assembly segments, including Gidderbaha, Barnala, Dera Baba Nanak and Chabbewal (Scheduled Caste reserved), would continue till 6 pm.

A total of 45 candidates, including three women, are in the fray for the bypolls in which 6.96 lakh voters will exercise their franchise at 831 polling stations.

The counting of votes on November 23.

Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, the Congress legislator from the politically significant seat Gidderbaha, was elected from the Ludhiana Parliamentary seat, while Raj Kumar Chabbewal, a Congress MLA who later switched loyalties to AAP, became MP from the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat.

Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who was a Congress legislator from the Dera Baba Nanak seat, got elected from the Gurdaspur parliamentary seat, while Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, the AAP legislator from Barnala, was elected as MP from the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat.

The Congress fielded Warring's wife Amrita Warring from Gidderbaha, while Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa's wife Jatinder Kaur from Dera Baba Nanak, Ranjit Kumar from Chabbewal and Kuldeep Singh Dhillon from Barnala.

The fight in Gidderbaha is triangular with BJP candidate Manpreet Singh Badal, a five-time lawmaker and two-time finance minister, posing a challenge to Akali Dal's turncoat and AAP's Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon and Congress' Amrita Warring. The Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) has fielded Sukhraj Singh.

Former Shiromani Akali Dal leader from Gidderbaha, Dhillon, once a close aide of Sukhbir Badal, switched loyalties in August, saying his decision to join the ruling party is in the larger interest of the constituency that is “struggling for development”.

This seat in Muktsar district was once considered a stronghold of the Akalis, with Parkash Singh Badal representing it for five consecutive terms -- 1969, 1972, 1977, 1980 and 1985, before he handed over the political baton to his nephew Manpreet Badal in 1995.

In Dera Baba Nanak, besides Congress' candidate Jatinder Kaur, AAP's nominee in the fray is Gurdeep Singh Randhawa and BJP's Ravikaran Singh Kahlon.

From Chabbewal, AAP candidate Ishank Kumar, son of AAP MP Raj Kumar Chabbewal, has been pitted against Congress' Ranjit Kumar and BJP's Sohan Singh Thandal, another Akali Dal turncoat who had won this seat in the 2012 Assembly elections but lost in 2017 and 2022.