Punjab Assembly Polls: Filing of nomination to begin from January 25, last date of withdrawal on February 4

Chandigarh, Jan 24: Punjab's Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju on Sunday said the filling of nominations for the next month's assembly polls will start on January 25 and will continue till February 1.

Voting for Punjab's 117 assembly seats will be held on February 20 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10.

Raju said the scrutiny of the nominations would be done on February 2 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature would be February 4, according to an official release.

The nominations for the upcoming elections would be filed in the office of respective returning officers from 11 am to 3 pm from January 25 to February 1, said Raju.

The CEO said January 26 is a holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 and therefore, nomination papers cannot be presented to the returning officer on that day. January 30, being Sunday, is also a holiday, he said.

The Model Code of Conduct came into force in the state on January 8. There are total 2,12,75,066 registered voters in the state and of them 1,00,86,514 are female, 695 third genders, 1,44,667 PWD, 1,10,163 service voters, 1,601 NRI voters and 5,13,229 aged above 80.