Six candidates filed their papers today on the first day of filing of nominations for Punjab's 13 Lok Sabha seats where polling will be held on April 30.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer (ACEO) Supreet Singh Gulati said six nominees, one of CPI(M) and 5 Independents, had filed their nomination papers.
CPI(M) candidate from Anandpur Sahib Balbir Singh filed two sets of nominations, and Raghunath Singh filed papers as his covering candidate.
The Independents who filed their nominations today are Badal Singh from Faridkot, Manpreet Singh from Bathinda, Manoj Kumar from Sangrur, Rajinder Singh Pawar from Patiala and Sukhchain Chand from Khadoor Sahib. Sukhchain is a nominee of the Democratic Bhartiya Samaj.
Filing of nomination 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 become known.
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 Gursdapur, Amritsar, Bathinda, Ferozepur and Patiala have been classified as "expenditure sensitive" constituencies.
The other eight constituencies of the state 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.
Meanwhile, additional CEO B Purushartha said Jalandhar police have recovered 30 quintals of poppy husk that was being brought from Indore. He said two persons had been arrested in this connection and investigations were on.
