Chandigarh, Jun 1 (IANS): Polling began on Saturday with the comprehensive arrangements for peaceful voting at 24,451 polling stations in Punjab for 13 Lok Sabha seats, with the deployment of around 70,000 security personnel, including Central forces.
A total of 2,14,61,741 voters, including 1,12,86,727 men, 1,01,74,241 women, 773 transgenders, 1,58,718 Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and 1,614 Non-Resident Indian voters, are entitled to cast vote till 6 p.m. with the counting of votes scheduled on June 4.
Simultaneously, the polling started for the lone parliamentary seat in Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana.
The number of first-time voters is 5,38,715 in Punjab, while there are 189,855 voters aged 85 years and above.
Chief Electoral Officer, Sibin C, said that 5,694 polling stations have been declared critical.
The counting of votes would take place at 117 centres at 24 locations.
Punjab is all set for a four-cornered fight among the AAP, the Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), and the BJP.
Among the prominent faces, BJP nominee and four-time MP Preneet Kaur is seeking re-election from the Patiala seat.
Three-time MP and SAD's Harsimrat Kaur Badal is contesting the elections from Bathinda.
Political observers told IANS that AAP aims to repeat its 2022 Assembly success of sweeping 92 seats in the House of 117, while the main Opposition Congress and the SAD look to regain ground. In the 2022 Assembly polls, the SAD was reduced to three seats.
Punjab had recorded a voter turnout of 65.96 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.