Punjab Panchayat election: After midnight drama, 1-vote victory for Congress-backed candidate in Gidderbaha

Punjab Congress Committee chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on Wednesday claimed the counting of votes for the panchayat elections was still underway at Sukhna Ablu village in Gidderbaha Assembly segment.

After five rounds of counting, Surinderpal Kaur, supported by Congress, got 1,358 votes while Manjinder Kaur, with AAP affiliation, got 1,357 votes and lost the election by just one vote.

The election presiding officer of Sukhna Ablu village said, "The counting was done twice as the victory margin was thin. The result got delayed as the number of votes was high at one particular polling booth and the counting took time.

Earlier, in a video, Warring claimed, "The counting of votes has been done five times at Sukhna Ablu village, which has nearly 4,000 voters. Lovely Singh won by five votes and then in recounting, his victory margin decreased to three votes. Now, a large number of people are present there and any untoward incident may happen. If something wrong happened, I will register an FIR against the Gidderbaha SDM and all other officers concerned."

Warring has further appealed to Congress workers to reach there. The polling was done from 8 am to 4 pm on Tuesday.