Counting of Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll begins

Jalandhar (Punjab) [India], May 13 : Counting of votes for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat (earlier known as Jullundur) began at 8.00 am on Saturday amid tight security, officials said.

Security has been beefed up in and around the counting centres set up at the office of the Director Land Records and Sports College Complex in Kapurthala Road.

The elections took place on Wednesday and recorded a voter turnout of 54.70 per cent.

To avoid any disturbance during the counting of votes, personnel of paramilitary forces along with the Punjab Police have been deployed here.

The byelection for Jalandhar Lok Sabha, one of the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies in Punjab was warranted after sitting MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary of Congress passed away on January 14 this year following a cardiac arrest while taking part in the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra.

As per the officials, all EVMs and VVPAT machines were kept in the 'strong room' after the voting and three-layer security has been installed.

In the elections, Congress has fielded Chaudhary's widow Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary from Jalandhar, while BJP has fielded Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded Sushil Kumar Rinku, Shirom Akali Dal (SAD) has given a ticket to Dr Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi and Shirom Akali Dal (Amritsar) or SAD(A) has placed its hopes on Gurjant Singh Kattu to wrest this seat.

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