Tarn Taran bypoll: 60.95 per cent turnout as Akalis cry police excess

Polling began at 7 am and ended at 6 pm, amid tight security measures, Deputy Commissioner Rahul said. The counting of votes will take place on November 14.

Punjab Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sibin C said that 60.95 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 6 pm. He said the figure may be revised by Wednesday once all polling parties return to the collection centres and final data entry is completed.

As per the CEO, 11 per cent polling was recorded in the first two hours (7 am to 9 am), which went up to 23.35 per cent at till 11 am, 36.62 per cent at 1 pm, 48.84 per cent at 3 pm and 59.21 per cent at 5 pm.

The morning chill failed to deter the voters, particularly the elderly, who queued up at the polling stations. Among the early voters were Congress candidate Karanbir Singh Burj and AAP candidate Harmeet Singh Sandhu. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Sukwinder Kaur Randhawa cast her vote in Kaka Kandiala village in the afternoon. She was accompanied by her daughter Kanchanpreet Kaur. In Mianpur, the native village of alleged gangster Amritpal Singh Bath, who is also son-in-law of Sukhwinder Randhawa, only Akali Dal’s counter was seen.

Despite overall calm, the day saw heated exchanges between political parties. The Akali Dal accused the police of acting under instructions from the AAP government. The party alleged that an SHO, Gurcharan Singh, and an ASI, Gurpreet Singh, manhandled the party workers and arrested a local leader, Lovely Pradhan. The party shared a video of the incident on social media and said it will lodge a formal complaint with the Election Commission.

Earlier in the day, Akali Dal also alleged that police had cleared their polling booth counters under the guise of checking and stationed the forces nearby in “an attempt to intimidate the party workers”.

Independent candidate Mandeep Singh couldn’t manage to set up his counter in all the villages, but is hoping to bag a considerable number of “silent votes”. Mandeep has the backing of Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) led by jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, Giani Harpreet Singh-led Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit), Simranjit Singh Mann-led SAD (Amritsar) and some radical Sikh bodies, including the Sikh Youth Federation (Bhindranwale).

Mandeep Singh is the brother of Sandeep Singh, an accused in the 2022 murder of Shiv Sena (Taksali) leader Sudhir Suri. Sandeep is also implicated in an attack on three former police officers, including two who were convicted in a fake encounter case in Tarn Taran, inside the Patiala jail. One of the convicted officers, Suba Singh, succumbed to his injuries on September 17.

The Congress has nominated its Tarn Taran district unit chief, Karanbir Singh Burj, for the by-election. Burj, an agriculturalist and real estate businessman, is contesting elections for the first time.

The BJP, which has fielded Harjit Singh Sandhu, the president of the party’s district unit as its, had managed to set up booths in nearly all the villages — a positive step for the saffron party that had witnessed mass boycotts earlier over the now-repealed agri laws.

The AAP’s counters remained most active. The bypoll is being seen as a litmus test for Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and will throw light on the popularity of the AAP regime’s policies and programmes among voters in the border constituency.

Around 100 booths were marked sensitive, all monitored through live webcasting and guarded by CRPF personnel.

SSP Surinder Singh Lamba said that about 2,500 security personnel, including 12 companies of BSF, were deployed, and 500 BSF jawans were specifically assigned to polling stations to maintain order.