Voter turnout of 29.5 per cent was recorded in the first five hours in the bypoll to Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat on Wednesday, according to the Election Commission data.
The voting for a four-cornered electoral contest began at 8 am. The poll percentage was 5.21 per cent till 9 am. It went up to 17.07 per cent by 11 am.
There are over 16 lakh electorates including 8,44,904 male, 7,76,855 female, 10,286 persons with disability, 1850 service electors, 73 overseas electors and 41 transgender in the Lok Sabha constituency.
In all, 19 candidates are in fray including 15 male and four female. Three of them are from national parties, one from state parties and seven from unrecognised parties and eight are Independent candidates. Five contesting candidates are with criminal antecedents.
All eyes are on this high-stakes electoral battle in Punjab with all main political parties vying to score a few points by winning the seat ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Be it, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), main Opposition party Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party (SAD-BJP) combine or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), winner in Jalandhar bypoll will get the bragging rights in the state where no party can claim a clear edge in this four-cornered contest.
A Congress stronghold, Jalandhar seat fell vacant after Congress’ Member of Parliament (MP), Santokh Singh Chaudhary, 76, died of a heart attack during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Punjab this January.