JOIN USAs the state registered its hottest day yet this summer, when the temperature touched 42 degree in some places, voters of Punjab were out in record numbers to elect members of the 16th Lok Sabha.
The state witnessed 73 per cent voting on Wednesday, when all its 13 constituencies went to polls. Though polling was largely peaceful, over a dozen youth attacked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Patiala candidate Dr Dharamvira Gandhi, leaving him injured. In the same constituency, some party activists, allegedly belonging to the Akali Dal, damaged the control unit of an EVM at a polling booth before throwing it on the ground and breaking it.
There were also reports of clashes between Congress and SAD workers in Fatehgarh churian. The poll percentage, hovering a little over 70 last time, was even better on Wednesday.
Harkirat Kaur, daughter of the deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, was among the first-time voters in the state. Kaur said she voted for her mother and the sitting MP from Bathinda constituency Harsimran Kaur, daughter-in- law of the chief minister.
All eyes, however, are on the Amritsar constituency, which has turned into an important battleground for both the Congress and the BJP as they fielded their star candidates former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Arun Jaitley respectively.
Amarinder’s wife Preneet Kaur, a Union minister, is also in the fray at Patiala, while her cabinet colleague Ambika Soni is a candidate for the Anandpur Sahib seat. A tough contest is expected in Gurdaspur, where actor-turned politician Vinod Khanna is pitted against Punjab Congress chief Partap Bajwa. In 2009, Congress won eight seats in the state, while the SAD-BJP combine had to be content with just five.