Chandigarh: Bypolls to the Assembly seats of Talwandi Sabo and Patiala, where former Union minister Preneet Kaur is one of the contestants, were on Thursday held peacefully with around 70 and 62 percent polling respectively.
Giving details, Punjab Chief Electoral Officer VK Singh said here, "Barring firing of few gun shots in air at Rama Mandi in Talwandi Sabo, there was no incident of violence and the polling ended peacefully."
However, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party alleged that the ruling SAD-BJP coalition government "misused" the official machinery and "bribed" voters to influence them to vote in favour of its candidates.
Reports here said that live gun shots were fired allegedly by Akali supporters and vehicles were damaged allegedly by Congress activists at Rama Mandi in Talwandi Sabo.
However, no injuries were reported in the incident, the Punjab's CEO said.
Both the seats are witnessing a triangular contest among ruling SAD, Congress and the AAP.
Meanwhile, Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa condemned the "attack" by "Akalis" on Congress candidate Harminder Singh Jassi in Rama Mandi.
He slammed the Akali Dal for allegedly resorting to booth capturing and pressure tactics in villages like Dunewal, Jeon Singhwala, Malkana, Giana, Bhagwanpur, some wards of Rama Mandi, Bangi Nihal Singh, Leleana and Shergarh in Talwandi Sabo Assembly constituency.
The number of voters in Talwandi Sabo is 1,44,316 while in Patiala there are 1,51,461 electors. While a total of eight contestants are in fray for Patiala seat, Talwandi Sabo seat is being contested by seven candidates.
Patiala is witnessing a triangular contest among Preneet Kaur, former union minister and wife of Congress leader Amarinder Singh, Bhagwan Das (SAD) and Harjeet Singh of AAP.
Preneet Kaur had lost the recent Lok Sabha polls to AAP's Dharamvira Gandhi.
Talwandi Sabo too is witnessing a triangular contest among Congress candidate Harminder Singh Jassi, SAD's Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu and AAP's Bajinder Kaur.
At Talwandi Sabo, Balkar Singh is in fray as an Independent candidate. Initially, he was declared as an AAP candidate but later was dropped and replaced by Baljinder Kaur (29).
The bypolls were necessitated in Patiala after sitting MLA Amarinder Singh got elected to Lok Sabha from Amritsar while in Talwandi Sabo, sitting Congress MLA Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu deserted the party to join the ruling SAD.
In the 117-member Punjab Assembly, the strength of ruling SAD is 56, its ally BJP 12, Congress has 44 members while there are three independents.
To gain simple majority, SAD requires two more members so that its tally in the Assembly reaches 58.
The counting will take place on August 25.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, August 21, 2014, 12:45
