Chandigarh, June 1 (HS). Voting is going on in the last phase of Lok Sabha elections in Punjab which started at 7 am on Saturday. During the first two hours, 9.64 percent voting has been done in the state till 9 am. Most of the candidates contesting the elections in Punjab reached their native places during the first hour of the morning and exercised their franchise in the constituencies from where they are contesting the elections. A total of 328 candidates are contesting on 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann went to village Mangwal in Sangrur and cast his vote along with his wife Dr. Harpreet Kaur. When the CM stood in the queue to cast his vote, the EVM malfunctioned. Due to which the CM stood in the queue for about ten minutes. Earlier, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had also cast his vote in Mohali.
Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chaddha and AAP candidate from Anandpur Sahib Malvinder Singh Kang, AAP candidate from Faridkot Karamjit Anmol cast their votes in Mohali, while former cricketer and Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh cast his vote in Jalandhar. Shiromani Akali Dal candidate from Patiala Lok Sabha constituency N.K. Sharma cast his vote along with his family in his native village Lohgarh.
As soon as the voting process started in Faridkot, Punjab this morning, a storm started and the booths outside the polling centre collapsed. More than a dozen voters were buried under it. As the police and other volunteers were present on the spot, no damage was caused. The voting process was interrupted for about 20 minutes due to the storm.
Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar cast his vote in Abohar and claimed that BJP has performed better than the previous elections. Meanwhile, AAP candidate from Sangrur Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer voted in Barnala and AAP candidate from Amritsar Kuldeep Dhaliwal also voted along with his family. Punjab Pradesh Congress President Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, who is contesting from Ludhiana, reached Muktsar Sahib at 7 am and cast his vote along with his wife Amrita Warring.
During the first two hours, 7.22 percent voting was recorded in Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency of Punjab, 9.53 percent in Anandpur Sahib, 9.74 percent in Bathinda, 9.83 percent in Faridkot, 8.27 percent in Fatehgarh Sahib, 11.61 percent in Ferozepur Lok Sabha constituency, 8.81 percent in Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency, 9.66 percent in Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha constituency, 9.34 percent in Jalandhar, 9.71 percent in Khadoor Sahib, 9.08 percent in Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency, 10.98 percent in Patiala Lok Sabha constituency and 11.36 percent voting was recorded in Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency.
Meanwhile, in the capital Chandigarh, BJP candidate Sanjay Tandon along with his family went to the Model School in Sector 18 and cast his vote. Congress candidate from Chandigarh Manish Tiwari could not cast his vote in Chandigarh as his vote was in Ludhiana. In Chandigarh, 11.64 percent of the people exercised their franchise during the first two hours.