Chandigarh| Around 4.80 percent polling was recorded in 117 assembly constituencies in the first one hour in Punjab’s polling that began on Sunday morning.
The state of Punjab will witness a multi-cornered contest with over 2.14 crore voters exercising their franchise to decide the fate of 1,304 candidates, including 93 women and 2 transgenders.
Voting will continue till 6 pm. While the counting of votes will take place on March 10.
Congress leader Sunil Jakhar was among the early voters. She cast her vote in the Panjkosi village of Abohar constituency, while Malvika Sood, sister of Congress candidate actor Sonu Sood, cast her vote in Moga. AAP’s chief ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann exercises his franchise in Mohali.
Before casting his vote, Channi offered prayers to Lord Shiva at a temple in Kharar town.
Chief Electoral Officer S. Karuna Raju told the media on Saturday that out of 1,304 candidates, 231 are from national parties, 250 from the state, 362 from unrecognized parties and 461 from independent candidates. A total of 315 candidates contesting the elections have a criminal history.
He said 24,689 polling stations and 51 auxiliary polling stations have been set up at 14,684 polling stations, out of which 2,013 have been identified as sensitive and 2,952 as vulnerable areas.
This time there will be 1,196 model polling stations and 196 women-managed centers. There will be webcasting of all stations.
Raju said that the total electorate includes 4,44,721, 1,38,116 voters with disabilities and 162 corona patients aged 80 years and above.
This time a total of 3,48,836 voters in the age group of 18-19 years will exercise their franchise for the first time, while 1,608 are NRI voters.
