New Delhi, Feb. 4: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said that Goa and Punjab will create history in their assembly polls.
“Goa and Punjab will create history today (Saturday),” Kejriwal said in a tweet.
Punjab began voting for all 117 assembly constituencies in the state at 8 a.m., while polling for Goa’s 40 assembly seats got underway at 7 a.m.
Kejriwal whose Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is counting on the voters of Punjab, urged the people in the state to go out and vote.In his tweets in Hindi and Gurumukhi, he urged the people to exercise their voting rights to chose the best for their state.
“Today is election day. Everyone must go to vote and take people of your village along with you and vote for honest politics,” Kejriwal asserted in two different tweets.
There are 22,614 polling stations in Punjab. The counting of votes will take place on March 11.
72 per cent votes cast in Punjab
Chandigarh: Over 72 per cent of Punjab’s nearly 1.99 crore voters cast their votes on Saturday in 117 assembly segments in the northern state, election officials said here.
Sangrur district recorded the highest 81 per cent voting, followed by Faridkot and Fatehgarh Sahib districts at 80 per cent. The Malwa belt (south of Sutlej river), comprising 14 of the 22 districts in Punjab and having 69 of the 117 assembly seats, saw a high voter turnout in all districts.
Eight districts in this belt saw over 75 per cent voting, while four districts recorded over 70 per cent voting.
Hoshiarpur (63 per cent) and Amritsar (65 per cent) recorded the lowest voting among all 22 districts. Voting was continuing at some polling stations since voters who had queued up by 5 p.m. were allowed to exercise their franchise. There were 22,614 polling stations across Punjab.
Punjab witnessed 78.57 per cent voting in the 2012 assembly polls.
A heavy 83% voter turnout in Goa, polling peaceful
Panaji: A high voter turnout of over 83 per cent was today recorded in the Assembly polls in Goa, where the ruling BJP is engaged in a fierce fight with the Opposition Congress, AAP and an alliance of MGP, Shiv Sena and GSM for the 40-member House. According to EC sources, the poll percentage could go up as there are long queues of voters at many booths across the state even after 5 PM.
Heavy polling was witnessed in the mining belt of Sankhalim, Bicholim and Curchorem.
The election passed off peacefully with no untoward incident reported from anywhere in the coastal state expect some cases of EVM glitches and cancellation of voting in one booth. A 78-year-old man died outside a polling booth in Panaji city. Leslie Saldanha, who was waiting to cast his vote, collapsed and died, officials said. ECI’s data from various polling booth showed that over 83 per cent of 11.10 lakh voters turned up to exercise franchise.
An impressive 83 per cent voting was recorded in the state in 2012 assembly polls, which saw the BJP wresting power from the Congress.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, widely seen as the chief ministerial face of the BJP, Union Minister Shripad Naik and Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar were among the early voters who cast their ballots. People in large numbers turned up at the polling stations right from the morning amid pleasant weather. A total of 250 contestants are in the fray, which include many independents.
The election is being closely fought by major political forces - BJP, Congress, AAP and the MGP-led alliance. The polls will decide future of Goa’s five former Chief Ministers - Churchill Alemao, Pratapsinh Rane, Ravi Naik, Digambar Kamat and Luizinho Faleiro and the incumbent Parsekar.
BJP has put up 36 aspirants, Congress 37 and AAP is contesting on 39 seats and each of them backing independents in a few seats.
BJP, which had a pre-poll alliance in 2012, is going it alone this time after the MGP snapped the partnership and forged a front with Goa Suraksha Manch floated by RSS rebel Subhas Velingkar and Shiv Sena. Counting of votes will be taken up on March 11.
