Punjab Election 2022: Key contenders, time and more; all you need to know

While the Congress hopes to return to power with Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who has been fielded from two seats, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with Bhagwant Mann as the CM-face is the other major contender to take Punjab.

Team Newsable

Punjab, First Published Feb 18, 2022, 2:35 PM IST

Punjab will step out to vote on February 20. While the Congress hopes to return to power with Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who has been fielded from two seats, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with Bhagwant Mann as the CM-face is the other major contender to take Punjab.

All about political parties: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is contesting 65 seats with the Punjab Lok Congress led by Captain Amarinder Singh and the Shiromani Akali Dal led by Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (Sanyukt). Apart from the saffron party, Congress is eyeing to secure a win, while BSP-SAD has formed an alliance. According to various reports, AAP is seen as a big competitor to all.

Key candidates: Congress' Charanjit Singh Channi, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Bhagwant Mann, Captain Amarinder Singh, Bikram Singh Majithia, Punjab BJP president Ashwani Kumar Sharma, and Sukhjinder Randhawa are among the key contenders to watch.

Voting time: It will start at 8 am and end by 6 pm.

Polling stations: On Sunday, 117 Assembly seats in 23 districts of Punjab will vote from 24,689 polling stations, according to the Election Commission. In view of the COVID-19 outbreak, the poll body decided to expand the number of booths from the existing 23,211 booths.

Voters: According to Election Commission of India statistics, Punjab has 2,14,99,804 eligible voters who will decide the destiny of 1304 candidates. There are 93 female candidates among the 1304 total, with two transgender candidates.

The state chiefs of political parties will be permitted to travel only between their state party headquarters and their house, which has been reported to the EC. To deal with any type of law-and-order situation, the EC has organised 1,000 quick reaction teams (QRT) comprised of central armed paramilitary forces like as the BSF, CRPF, and ITBP.

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Last Updated Feb 18, 2022, 2:35 PM IST