As the by-election for Punjab’s Jalandhar parliamentary constituency witnesses a multi-cornered electoral battle, necessary arrangements to ensure free, fair and peaceful polling have been set in place, even as a demand for the deployment of paramilitary forces was raised on Tuesday.
Voting for the by-poll would be held on May 10 and the counting of votes will take place on May 13.
The key contest is between the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Congress’ candidate is Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, wife of late MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary. The AAP has named former Congress MLA Sushil Kumar Rinku as its candidate. The BJP has announced that Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, a former Akali Dal MLA, is its candidate. The SAD-BSP combine has fielded former MLA Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi. A total of 19 candidates are in the fray.
