Punjab LS poll nominations to commence from tomorrow

The process of filing of nomination papers for the April 30 elections to 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab will commence from tomorrow with the issuance of notification.
The filing of nominations will continue till April 9, scrutiny will take place the next day and withdrawal will take place till April 12 when the final picture of contestants will be known.
The filing of nominations would take place between 11 am and 3 pm before the respective Returning Officers of the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies, an EC official said.
He said all contesting candidates would have to deposit the security amount of Rs 25,000. Half the amount (Rs 12,500) will have to be deposited by the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes candidates (even in general constituencies).

About 1.92 crore voters, including 90 lakh women, would cast their votes at 21,957 polling stations, including 15,463 in rural areas, from 7 am to 6 pm on April 30.
Five constituencies of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Bathinda, Ferozepur and Patiala have been classified as "expenditure sensitive" constituencies.

The other eight constituencies which will go to the polls are Khadoor Sahab, Jalandhar (SC), Fatehgarh Sahab, Hoshiarpur (SC), Anandpur Sahab, Ludhiana, Sangrur and Faridkot.
Of the 13 Lok Sabha seats, at present Congress has eight MPs, SAD four and its alliance partner BJP one.
The key Congress nominees named include former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh (Amritsar), Punjab Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa (Gurdaspur), Union Minister Preneet Kaur (Patiala) and Leader of Opposition in State Assembly Sunil Jakhar (Ferozepur).

BJP, which is to contest three seats has named senior party leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley (Amritsar) and actor-turned politician Vinod Khanna (Gurdaspur).
Saffron party's alliance partner SAD has among others named Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal's wife Harsimrat Kaur (Bathinda) and senior party leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (Sangrur).