The Election Commission of India on Saturday announced the polling dates for the Punjab Assembly elections scheduled for the year 2022.
The current tenure of Punjab Legislative Assembly is scheduled to end on March 27, 2022. This will be the 16th Assembly of the Punjab legislature.
The voting to elect 117 members of the Punjab Legislative Assembly will be conducted on February 14, 2022, in a single phase. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
The date of issue of notification in Punjab is January 21, 2022, and the last date of nominations is January 28, 2022. The scrutiny of nominations will take place on January 29, 2022 and the last date of withdrawal of candidature is January 31, 2022.
In 2017, the Congress formed the state government, with Amarinder Singh as the Chief Minister. On 18 December, 2021, he resigned owing to differences with other members of the Congress and was succeeded by Charanjit Singh Channi.
On 27 October 2021, Singh announced that he will be forming a new political party to contest the elections called the Punjab Lok Congress.
The two-decade-long alliance between BJP and the SAD was dissolved due the controversial farm laws passed by the BJP-controlled Parliament in 2020.
On 13 June 2021, SAD and BSP announced an alliance for the Assembly election with 97-20 seat sharing.
Key political parties who will fight for power in the state include the Congress, BJP, Aam Aadmi Party, Punjab Lok Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party.
All the five states — Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur and Uttarakhand — will vote in 7 phases from February 10 to March 7. The counting will take place on March 10.
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