61.32 per cent turnout in Punjab, polling largely peaceful; mixed bag predicted

Jupinderjit Singh

Chandigarh, June 1

Punjab witnessed largely peaceful polling for the 13 Lok Sabha seats, with 61.32 per cent turnout recorded at midnight. In 2014, the turnout was 70.63 per cent, and in 2019, it was 65.94 per cent.

It was a unique election in Punjab with no two parties forging alliance. The Congress, AAP, BJP and SAD are locked in four-cornered contests in many seats whereas the presence of radical leaders in Sangrur, Faridkot and Khadoor Sahib has made contests five-cornered ones.

The Congress and AAP have forged an alliance under the INDIA bloc at national level. However, due to registration of corruption cases against several Congress leaders by the AAP government, the parties did not have alliance in the state.

The BJP and SAD also contested against each other in the General Election for the first time in the last 25 years. Predicting outcome of the elections, exit polls gave two to four seats to the BJP, four to nine to the Congress and two to six to AAP and zero to four to SAD and zero to three to others, including Independents.

Although an AAP worker was gunned down at Lakhowal in Ajnala on Friday evening, no major incident of violence was reported today. Lakhowal residents boycotted the elections.

In Ferozepur, BSP candidate Surinder Kamboj was booked under Section 171-F of the IPC and Sections 126-1, 132 of Representation of People Act at Guruharsahai for making a video of himself while casting the vote at Jiwa Arain village.

At Goraya in Jalandhar, two farmers reportedly stopped BJP workers from setting up a booth at Dulittean village. The confrontation escalated into violence when one of the youths hit the BJP workers with a stick.

At Ahmedpur village in Budhlada, only 170 of the 3,600 people voted. The village is protesting over police inaction in murder cases of Jangir Singh (65) and his sister-in-law Ranjit Kaur.

The voting percentage seemed to have been affected by extreme heat, with temperatures soaring above 45°C at some places. The Punjab Chief Electoral Office had made arrangements for cold drinks for voters.