Over two lakh enrol as voters in Punjab, 80,000 in Haryana

The Election Commission's move to provide another chance to eligible and first time voters received an enthusiastic response in Punjab with over two lakh voters enrolling themselves in a single day, while 80,000 did so in Haryana, officials said Monday.

The enrolment of new voters was carried out Sunday, Punjab's chief electoral officer (CEO) V.K. Singh said here.

"The novel concept of ECI to enrol left-out eligible voters, including first time young voters received unprecedented response with more than two lakh people applying for enrolment as voters in a single day," he said.

The enrolment of voters took place in 22,018 polling booths across Punjab.

Ludhiana district witnessed maximum response with 30,217 people applying for votes in a single day. It was followed by Amritsar district (22,857), Hoshiarpur (13,221) and Patiala (11,961).

Punjab's 13 Lok Sabha seats go to polls April 30. There are over 1.92 crore registered voters in the state.

In neighbouring Haryana, nearly 80,000 new voters have applied to get themselves registered in the electoral rolls, said the state's CEO Shrikant Walgad.

Haryana has nearly 1.56 crore registered voters. Elections to the state's 10 seats will be held April 10.