All set for contest between Congress

Chandigarh, Feb 12: Nearly 1.65 crore voters in Punjab are expected to exercise their franchise in elections to 115 of the 117 assembly seats and the prestigious Amritsar Lok Sabha seat tomorrow in what is seen as a straight contest between the Congress and the Akali Dal-BJP combine.

As candidates ended their door-to-door campaign, a security cordon was throw around the 16,757 polling stations, including 4797 sensitive and 1034 hyper-sensitive booths which will be manned by around 90,000 polling personnel. Polling will commence at 0800 hours and end at 1700 hours.

About 200 companies of Para Military Forces (PMF) have been deployed, in addition to the Punjab Police personnel for conducting free and fair polls in the state. PMF companies staged flag marches in a number of sensitive constituencies to prevent intimidation of voters and to maintain law and order.

The voters tomorrow will decide the fate of 1038 candidates including 49 women in fray in the 115 assembly seats and the ten candidates, including the high-profile cricketer-turned-politician and BJP candidate Navjot Singh Sidhu and his main challenger state Finance Minister Surinder Singla of the Congress who are contesting the Amritsar Lok Sabha by-poll.

The main contenders for a seat in the Vidhan Sabha are Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh from Patiala, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Parkash Singh Badal from Lambi, former SGPC President Bibi Jagir Kaur from Bholath, Punjab Congress chief Shamsher Singh Dullo from Khanna (reserve), Deputy Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal from Lehra Gagga, Deputy Speaker Prof Darbari Lal and senior BJP leader Laxmi Kanta Chawla, both from Amritsar Central and BSP chief Avtar Singh Karimpuri from Mahilpur (reserve).

The Congress, the SAD-BJP combine and the BSP are contesting all the 115 seats, followed by CPI (24), NCP (15) and CPI-M (14).

Besides nominees of other parties, there are as many as 641 independents in the fray, many of whom were rebels from the two major parties.

The Election Commission has appointed 157 Observers, four additional Observers and two Special Observers for the smooth conduct of the polls. The Commission has made it clear that Electronic Voters Identity Cards (EVIC) will be used, but if a voter does not possess a EVIC, then they must establish their identity through a ration card, employers ID card, driving license, passport, bank pass book or PAN card at the time of casting a vote.

All the 18,040 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) after checks and rechecks have reached all the polling booths in the state.

Strict instructions have been given that no voter or representive or polling agent of any candidate or political party will be allowed to use his or her mobile phone inside the polling station.

Only presiding officers will be allowed to use their mobile phones.

The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) will ensure uninterrupted power supply at all polling booths.

Inclement weather in the last three days hit the campaign and a number of rallies had to be cancelled as the star campaigners failed to turn up due to rain. Leaders and candidates of political parties are hoping that the weather clears-up tomorrow, so that voters come out in strength to cast their votes. During the campaign political parties and candidates were kept on their toes by frequent reprimands by the EC and its strict instructions to adher to the code of conduct including a ban on defacement of public property and a tab on poll expenses.

The star Congress campaigners, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi played the ''Centre card'' and cautioned against the ''threat to the country by divisive forces''.

The opposition SAD-BJP alliance brought in former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former deputy prime minister L K Advani and BJP chief Rajnath Singh who lashed out at the Congress leaders for playing the ''terror card''.

Cine stars Vinod Khanna, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha and Smriti Irani campaigned extensively for the SAD-BJP, while Govinda was the lone star of the Congress, who wound up the ruling party campaign in the rains yesterday.

State Director General of Police (DGP) R S Gill, who reviewed the last minute security measures with his senior officers this morning, said that to meet any emergent situation without any delay, three Companies of security forces have been kept reserved and will be sent to 'troubled spots' on his directions. One Company each is kept as reserve at the disposal of Zone IGPs, two Companies each are kept as reserve at the disposal of Range DIGs, one company each at District Headquarters besides one platoon each at 89 sub divisional headquarters through out the state.

In a message, the DGP exhorted the police personnel to perform their duties impartially, efficiently, objectively and transparently to ensure smooth, fair and peaceful elections in the state.

The inter-state borders with Punjab have been sealed and police check-posts have been put up along the borders of all assembly segments. Vehicular traffic entering or leaving each assembly segment is being checked to establish the identity of travellers as the EC has directed that only voters would be allowed to stay in their constituencies.

According to the security set-up, all polling locations with single/double polling stations would be provided three or four security personnel led by a head constable. Polling locations having triple, quard, penta, hexa and above booths would be provided 5, 6, 7 and 9 police personnelled by a Non-Gazetted Officer (NGO). Besides this, polling locations having three or more polling stations as well as sensitive one's would be provided at least half a section of PMF, while hyper sensitive polling stations, besides having the security of sensitive stations would be covered additionally with intensive patrolling.

The month-long campaign which ended yesterday remained by and large peaceful except for one major incident of clash between the SAD and Congress workers in the Beas constituency in which a SAD activist died, leading to postponement of polls there to March 11.

The EC also postponed elections to February 24 in Valtoha due to the death of CPI candidate Kulwinder Singh.

UNI