253 candidates in fray for 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab

A total of 253 candidates remained in the fray for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, as the deadline to withdraw nominations ended today.
As many as 27 candidates, mostly Independents, withdrew nominations during the past two days, Punjab's Additional Chief Electoral Officer Supreet Singh Gulati said today.
There are 17 candidates from Hoshiarpur, 22 from Ludhiana, 15 from Fatehgarh Sahib, 15 from Ferozepur, 13 from Gurdaspur, 18 from Anandpur Sahib, 17 from Khadoor Sahib, 20 from Patiala, 21 from Sangrur, 29 from Bathinda, 19 from Faridkot, 24 from Jalandhar and 23 from Amritsar, Gulati said.
Bathinda parliamentary constituency, from where SAD's sitting MP and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal's wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal is pitted against Sukhbir's estranged cousin Manpreet Singh Badal of PPP, has maximum 29 candidates.

While Gurdaspur, from where sitting MP and Punjab Congress President Pratap Singh Bajwa is taking on BJP's Vinod Khanna, has the minimum number of 13 candidates.
Senior Congress leader Ambika Soni will take on Prem Singh Chandumajra of SAD from Anandpur Sahib.

Other prominent candidates include former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh (Congress), Arun Jaitley (BJP), and Daljeet Singh (AAP) from the Amritsar seat.
The state will go to polls on April 30.
About 1.92 crore voters, including 90 lakh women, are eligible to exercise their franchise at 21,957 polling stations, including 15,463 in rural areas.
Of the 13 Lok Sabha seats, at present, Congress has eight MPs, SAD four and its alliance partner BJP one.