Punjab is all set to elect it’s new Government. The Assembly Elections 2012 in Punjab are on the way. About 1.77 crore voters in Punjab will exercise their franchise on 30th January 2012 to elect their 117 legislators for 117 Constituencies. The polling exercise for the 14th Assembly of the state of Punjab will start at 8 AM and will close by 5 PM. In these polls, a total of 1,078 candidates including 93 women are contesting from various constituencies. The Exit polls will be announced by the evening by news channels such as Aajtak, NDTV India, ORG- Nielson, ORG – MARG, CNN – IBN, NDTV 24 x 7, Zee News, STAR News and other local television channels. The counting of votes and announcement of results will be on 6th March 2012. You can get the live update of winners and losers in exit polls and actual results from the above news channels.
Important Contestants are: Prakash Singh Badal (Akalidal), Gurudass (PPP), Mahesh Inder Singh (Congress) – Lambi Constituency, Amarinder Singh (Congress) – Patiala, Sukhbeer Badal (Akalidal) – Jalalabad, Raninder Badal (Akalidal) – Samna, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (Congress) – Lehraa, Manpreet Badal (PPP) – Gidderbaha, Balwant Singh Ramuwalia (Akalidal) – Mohali and Jagir Kaur (Akalidal) – Bholat.
It is observed by the political analysts that there will be a tough fight in Punjab between alliances lead by Akalidal and the Congress. The BSP is also expected to play crucial role in the post poll scenario. As per the Assembly Elections 2012 Schedule in Punjab, the Counting of votes will be held on 6th March 2012. The Election commission has made all the arrangements for polls. There are 19,841 polling stations, including 117 auxiliary booths, have been set up across 22 districts of the state.
Gill Assembly constituency in Ludhiana district is the largest constituency with 1,94,331 voters. Nakodar Constituency in Jalandhar district has the highest number of polling stations, at 238. Amloh in Fatehgarh Sahib district is the smallest Assembly Constituency with 1,13,952 voters. Ludhiana East, Jalalabad and Patiala Rural are fielded by 16 candidates each. This is the highest number in the present elections. Attari reserved constituency has just four contestants. Following are brief statistics of Punjab Elections 2012:
1) Total Assembly Constituencies in Punjab: 117
2) Candidates: 1078
3) Women candidates: 93
4) Male voters: 9322545
5) Female Voters: 8361014
6) Total Voters: 17683559
7) Polling Stations: 19724
8) EVMs: 19841
Party Wise Candidates:
1) Congress party: 117
2) BSP: 117
3) Shiromani Akalidal: 94
4) PPP: 92
5) BJP: 23
6) CPI: 14
7) CPI (M): 9
8) Independents and others: 612