122 in fray from 11 Assembly seats in Amritsar

Manmeet Singh Gill

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Amritsar, February 2

As many as 122 candidates, including 45 Independents, remained in the fray after the scrutiny of the nomination papers on Wednesday. A total of 165 candidates had filed 210 nominations from the 11 Assembly segments in the district.

With a maximum of 16 candidates in the Amritsar South constituency, it also has the highest number of eight Independent candidates in the fray. Followed by Amritsar West, the Attari (reserved) constituency has the second highest number of 14 candidates, including four Independents, in the contest.

The Amritsar Central constituency has the least number of six candidates. Initially, 10 candidates had filed their papers from the constituency and papers of four covering candidates from the Congress, SAD, AAP and BSP were rejected.

A majority of the candidates whose nominations were rejected by the election office were covering candidates for the primary contestants of their respective parties. The Amritsar Central is the only segment, where no Independent candidate has filed his/her papers.

At present, it is being represented by five-time MLA — OP Soni. The Ajnala constituency, with 12 candidates in contest, has six Independents.

Apart from the Congress, SAD, AAP, BJP and Punjab Lok Congress of Capt Amarinder Singh, many smaller and lesser-known parties are also contesting from different seats. The parties, registered but unrecognised by the ECI, as Aas Punjab Party (APP), Bahujan Mukti Party, Sanjhi Virasat Party, Nationalist Justice Party, Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar) which is different from Mayawati-led BSP which has an alliance with SAD, Samajik Sangharsh Party, Sanyukt Samaj Party, Punjab Kisan Dal and Republican Party of India have also fielded their candidates from many constituencies.

Political observers believe that the parties with the same names as APP (Aas Punjab Party) and BSP (Ambedkar) would confuse supporters of the AAP and BSP, respectively.

Of all unrecognised political parties, SAD (Amritsar) and APP are the only two political outfits that have fielded candidates from all 11 Assembly segments. The communist parties — CPI and CPI (M) — have fielded their candidates from Amritsar West and Rajasansi seats only.

51 nomination papers found valid in Tarn Taran dist

Tarn Taran: The nomination papers of 45 candidates were rejected in the scrutiny done on Wednesday and the papers of 51 were found to be valid for district’s four Vidhan Sabha constituencies — Tarn Taran, Khemkaran, Patti and Khadoor Sahib. The papers of Harpinder Singh Gill, brother of Congress MP Jasbir Singh Dimpa, and Gursant Updesh Singh Gill, Dimpa’s son, too, were rejected by the RO-cum-SDM Khadoor Sahib in the scrutiny, as they failed to produce the authority given by the party for the candidature. District Election Officer-cum-District Magistrate Kulwant Singh on Wednesday said after the scrutiny, the nomination papers of 12 candidates from Tarn Taran Vidhan Sabha constituency, 17 from Khemkaran, 12 from Patti and 10 from Khadoor Sahib were found valid.

• The candidates found to be valid from Tarn Taran constituency are Harmeet Singh Sandhu, Kashmir Singh Sohal, Dharambeer Agnihotri, Navreet Singh Hundal, Amreek Singh Varpal, Amritpal Singh Hehiron, Harjit Kaur, Dharampal Singh, Sukhmandeep Singh Dhillon, Harjinder Singh, Malkit Singh and Vijay Kumar.
• From Khemkaran, the candidature of Sarwan Singh Dhunn, Sukhpal Singh Bhullar, Virsa Singh Valtoha, Ajay Kumar, Inderjit Singh, Shingara Singh, Harpvitt Singh Gill, Harpal Singh, Surjit Singh, Jaimal Singh, Daljit Singh Gill, Nishan Singh, Pawan Kumar, Payal, Angrej Singh, Surjit Singh, and Gursharan Singh among others were found to be valid.
• From Patti constituency, the nomination papers of Laljit Singh Bhullar, Harminder Singh Gill, Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, Jaskaran Singh, Manjit Singh, Dilbag Singh, Satnam Singh, Ravinder Singh, Sukhwant Singh, Sartaj Singh Sandhu, Harjinder Singh and Amandeep Singh were found valid.
• From Khadoor Sahib, Ramanjit Singh Sahota Sikki, Ranjit Singh Brahampura, Manjinder Singh Sidhu, Pooran Singh, Jaswant Singh, Tavleen Sahota, Pal Singh, Gurdev Singh, Varinder Singh and Harjinder Singh’s papers were found valid. — Gurbaxpuri

Under security

• Apart from Congress, SAD, AAP, BJP and Punjab Lok Congress of Capt Amarinder Singh, many smaller and lesser-known parties are also contesting elections
• The parties, registered but unrecognised by the ECI, including Aas Punjab Party (APP), Bahujan Mukti Party, Sanjhi Virasat Party, Nationalist Justice Party, Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar) which is different from Mayawati-led BSP, which has an alliance with SAD, Samajik Sangharsh Party, Sanyukt Samaj Party, Punjab Kisan Dal and Republican Party of India have also fielded their candidates
• Political observers say that the parties with the same names as APP (Aas Punjab Party) and BSP (Ambedkar) would confuse supporters of AAP and BSP, respectively