Khadoor Sahib clocks 58%, polling peaceful

Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Seervice

Khadoor Sahib, February 13

Turnout for the byelection in the constituency stood at 58 per cent today as against 80.74 per cent in the 2012 Assembly elections.

In absence of any opposition, with the Congress and AAP opting out of the poll battle, the election process remained completely peaceful.

The constituency witnessed a slow start in the morning with only 4 per cent votes polled in the first one hour. Till 10 am, only 9 per cent of the votes were polled.

The polling gathered pace after SAD supporters reportedly initiated efforts to pursue people to vote. They went door-to-door in many areas. A Dalit voter from Khadoor Sahib said: “The sarpanch of our village and his supporters came to our locality and asked people to vote.”

The polling is even lower than the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections when the poll percentage was 68.27 percent and 68.93 percent, respectively.

There was no rush at the polling booths which usually see long queues. At some booths, poll officials were seen sitting idle. In absence of any opposition at booth level, SAD supporters were ruling the roost. No untoward incident was reported.

Talking to The Tribune outside a polling booth in Goindwal, an elderly voter said: “The 2017 election would be the real test. This one is a mere formality.” He said he had voted for the Akali Dal.

Akali candidate Ravinder Singh Brahmpura is pitched against six Independent candidates, Puran Singh (BSP, Ambedkar), Sumel Singh Sidhu (AAP rebel), Bhupinder Singh Bittu (Congress rebel), Sukhdev Singh, Harjit Singh and Anantjit Singh Sandhu.

Deputy Commissioner Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal said elaborate arrangements had been made for the security of EVM machines. The counting would be held on February 16.