Punjab Polls 2017: Repolling in 48 polling stations passes off smoothly

Repolling was on Thursday held at 48 polling stations under Amritsar Lok Sabha constitutency and five assembly segments of Punjab, with no untoward incident being reported from anywhere.

The repoll was ordered by the Election Commission following malfunctioning of Voter-Verified Audit Paper Trail (VVPAT) and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in these stations during the February 4 elections.

The electors began reaching polling stations early in the morning to cast their votes from scheduled time of 8 AM till 5 pm, officials said.

Most of the polling stations where the repoll was held registered a healthy turnout. However, at some polling booths in Majitha Assembly, the repoll percentage registered a slight drop, varying between 2-10 percentage points.

The combined average of the re-polling booths in Amritsar district stood at over 76 per cent.

Muktsar (nearly 90 percent), Sangrur (85.68 per cent), Sardulgarh (over 90 per cent) and Moga (81.26 per cent) registered healthy voting percentage.

The repolling was ordered at 12 polling stations of Majitha Assembly seat, nine each of Muktsar and Sangrur, one each of Moga and Sardulgarh and 16 polling stations of Amritsar Parliamentary constituency.

The problem in VVPAT was witnessed in Majitha, Muktsar and Sangrur assembly segments while EVMs were found faulty in Moga and Sardulgarh segments.

From Majitha seat, Cabinet minister and Akali candidate Bikram Singh Majithia is locked in a contest against Congress and AAP candidates Sukhjinder Raj Singh Lalli and Himmat Singh Shergill respectively.

Majithia, who was unable to cast his vote on February 4 due to VVPAT problem in Majitha segment, cast his vote. From Muktsar, Congress has fielded Karan Kaur while SAD and AAP have fielded Kanwarjit Singh and Jagdeep Singh respectively.

From Sangrur, Congress’s nominee is Vijay Inder Singla while SAD has fielded Parkash Chand Garg and AAP has nominated Dinesh Bansal. In Moga, Congress has fielded Harjot Kamal Singh against Akali candidate Barjinder Singh and AAP candidate Ramesh Grover.

From Sardulgarh seat, the fight is between Congress candidate Ajit Inder Singh, AAP’s Sukhwinder Singh and Akali candidate Dilraj Singh. From Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, the poll fight is between BJP’s Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, Congress’s G S Aujla and AAP’s Upkar Sandhu.

Elections for 117 assembly segments took place on February 4 and the state recorded 78.6 per cent of voting.