Sidelights of the Punjab assembly polls

Chandigarh, Feb 1 (UNI) As many as 1050 candidates have joined the fray in the assembly elections in Punjab as compared to 932 in the 2002 polls.

Out of these, 49 are women though there were 90 in the poll arena last time.

Ludhiana Rural assembly segment with 4,65,263 voters, has the largest electorate while Amritsar Central has just about 68,000 votes, the least in any constituency. Area wise Dakha is the largest assembly constituency.

Out of 1,69,19,848 voters spread over 117 assembly constituencies, 81,54,515 are women.

The least number of candidates --three are in Dasuya segment while the most, 18-- are in Ludhiana Rural and Patiala.

A total of 21,375 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used in 16,751 pollings booths, out of which 1034 have been classified as hyper - sensitive and another 4797 as sensitive.

The Congress has fielded 10 women candidates while the Shiromani Akali Dal has fielded five and its ally, the BJP one. Prominent women contestants include Deputy Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (Lehra Gagga), Ms Razia Sultan (Malerkotla).

The SAD women contestants include former Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Bibi Jagir Kaur (Bholath) and former minister Dr Upenderjit Kaur (Sultanpur Lodhi).

The BJP has fielded firebrand leader Mrs Laxmi Kanta Chawla from Amritsar Central.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is locked in an 18 - cornered contest from Patiala while SAD chief and former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal is involved in a eight - cornered contest at Lambi.

Interestingly enough, there are three father-son contestants in the election fray. Former minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh (Banur) and his son Jasjit Singh (Kharar), both of the SAD. Former minister and BJP candidate Swarana Ram (Phagwara-reserved) and his son Mohan Lal of the SAD from Banga (reserved) who will be contesting their third straight assembly election.

The third father-son team is that of SAD (Amritsar) chief and former MP, Simranjit Singh Mann (Dhaanula) and Iman Singh (Sirhind).

Mrs Bhattal (Lehra Gagga) and Mr Kuldip Singh Bhattal (Dhanaula) are the brother-sister duo who will be contesting the polls on the Congress ticket.

Former chief minister, the late Beant Singh's two children senior minister Gurkamal Kaur (Jalandhar Cantt) and her and her brother Tej Prakash ( Payal) are also contesting the polls as Congress candidates.

Mrs Bhattal was the chief minister for a brief period just prior to the 1997 elections, which the Congress party lost. Mr Badal has been chief minister thrice--1969, 1978 and 1997. The SAD chief has been the Chief Minister of the state for eight years and ten months, followed by Mr Pratap Singh Kairon (Congress) who occupied the office at one stretch for eight years and five months.

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