385 nominations filed for Punjab's 13 LS seats

Chandigarh, April 29 (IANS) On the last day of filing of nominations, 188 candidates filed their papers in Punjab for 13 Lok Sabha seats on Monday.

So far, 385 candidates have filed their nomination papers in the state, Punjab Chief Electoral Officer S. Karuna Raju said here.

Scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on Tuesday (April 30). Polling on all 13 seats will be held on May 19.

Prominent candidates who filed their nominations on Monday included Bollywood actor Sunny Deol (Ajay Singh Dharmendra Deol) as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for Gurdaspur seat, Congress leader Manish Tewari for the Anandpur Sahib seat and outgoing MP Sher Singh Gubhaya of the Congress from Firozpur seat.

Raju said 468,059 voters have been enrolled as new voters in the electoral rolls of Punjab from January 31 till April 19.

He said that till April 19, a total 1,128 Non-Resident Indians had registered themselves in electoral rolls.

The CEO said that out of total 20,781,211 (over 2.07 crore) voters in Punjab, 1,09,50,735 are male and 98,29,916 are female voters.

Most seats will see multi-cornered contests between the ruling Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the six-party People's Democratic Alliance.