Polling begins for Lok Sabha seat in Punjab's Jalandhar

Chandigarh, May 10 (IANS) Polling for the parliamentary reserved constituency of Punjab's Jalandhar, witnessing a four-cornered fierce contest in the Dalit-dominated Doaba region, traditionally a Congress bastion, began on Wednesday amid tight security, election officials said here.

Electors could be seen reaching polling stations even before voting started at 8 a.m.

A total of 16.21 lakh voters will cast their ballots till 6 p.m. to decide the fate of 19 candidates, including four women.

Around 8,000 security personnel have been deployed. The counting will take place on Saturday.

The bypoll was necessitated with the death of Congress MP Santokh Chaudhary due to a heart attack while taking part in the Punjab leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in January.

The Congress, which has remained undefeated in this seat since 1999, has fielded Chaudhary's widow Karamjit Kaur as its candidate, while the AAP has given the ticket to Congress turncoat and former legislator Sushil Rinku.

While the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party (SAD-BSP) combine has fielded Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, a sitting legislator, the BJP has given the ticket to Akali turncoat and former legislator Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal.

The Jalandhar bypoll is being dubbed to be a crucial electoral battle for all political parties ahead of the 2024 general elections.

After chastening a humiliating loss less than a year ago, the 13-month AAP government is set for a litmus test, where a victory or defeat will stamp its administrative and leadership acumen.

In June 2022, the AAP had witnessed a major setback when SAD (Amritsar)'s Simranjit Singh Mann won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat after defeating his nearest rival, the party's Gurmail Singh, by a slender margin.

The Sangrur constituency was once a stronghold of AAP. Bhagwant Mann had represented this seat twice -- 2014 and 2019. He had vacated the seat after winning the Assembly elections in February 2022 from Dhuri and became the Chief Minister.

For the Jalandhar bypoll, the Chaudhary family is banking on votes of Dalits owing to their proximity with Dera Sachkhand Ballan, a prominent Ravidassia community that has much influence in the Doaba region comprising Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Kapurthala districts.

Likewise, AAP's candidate Rinku belongs to the Ravidassia sect. The Jalandhar seat has 38 per cent Dalit population, comprising 21 per cent Ravidasias and the remaining Valmiki or Mazhbi Sikhs.

Playing an emotional card, SAD President Sukhbir Badal said strengthening the SAD-BSP alliance by electing its joint candidate Sukhi in the bypoll would be the most appropriate homage to late five-time Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Saying that this poll will set the tone for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress rebel and BJP leader Capt Amarinder Singh said the vote for the party candidate would strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He lashed out at the AAP government, saying it has completely failed the people's expectations despite getting a landslide victory.

In appeal to the voters to give one more year so that they could trust AAP in 2024, Chief Minister Mann tried to woo votes by saying: "You (people) kept on giving chances to the Akali Dal and the Congress for 70 years, but they did nothing for you. Just give us one more year to work. If you don't like our work, don't vote for us in 2024."

AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal and Mann on Sunday jointly campaigned by holding four roadshows in various constituencies in a single day.

There are 16,21,759 electorates, including 8,44,904 men, 7,76,855 women, 10,286 persons with disability, 1,850 service electors, 73 overseas electors and 41 transgenders in the constituency.

Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C. said 1,972 polling booths have been set up.

A total of 542 vulnerable polling stations have been identified, 16 have been marked as critical and 30 expenditure sensitive pockets.