Punjab bypoll: Gidderbaha continues trend, records high turnout of 81%

Continuing the trend of high voter turnout since 2007, the high-stakes Gidderbaha assembly segment recorded 81% polling in the byelections held on Wednesday

BATHINDA : Continuing the trend of high voter turnout since 2007, the high-stakes Gidderbaha assembly segment recorded 81% polling in the byelections held on Wednesday.

Continuing the trend of high voter turnout since 2007, the high-stakes Gidderbaha assembly segment recorded 81% polling in the byelections held on Wednesday.

According to the election commission, 78.1% of votes were polled till 5pm, the highest percentage among the four constituencies that went to polls amid tight security.

Gidderbaha has 1.66 lakh registered voters.

Muktsar senior superintendent of police (SSP) Tushar Gupta said the election process remained peaceful. “In addition to the comprehensive police personnel led by four SPs and 11 DSPs, we had four companies of the paramilitary forces. There were 104 polling locations where 173 polling booths were set up by the election authorities. No untoward incident was reported,” added the SSP.

After the polling began at 7am, Gidderbaha seat kept leading in the polling chart for the entire day.

The byelection for Gidderbaha was necessitated after three-time legislator and Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring quit the seat after he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Ludhiana seat.

Warring’s wife Amrita Warring contested her maiden election as the Congress candidate whereas the ruling dispensation of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fielded Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, a turncoat, who recently quit the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) banked on the five-time legislator Manpreet Singh Badal, who won the prestigious Gidderbaha seat for four consecutive terms.

Gidderbaha, which nurtured two leaders who later became the chief ministers of Punjab — late Harcharan Singh Brar of the Congress and late Parkash Singh Badal, an Akali patriarch — traditionally remained an Akali citadel that was breached by the Congress in 2012.

Since this time the SAD is not contesting the elections, the AAP leadership found it an opportunity to win the seat for the first time.

Changed electoral equations made the byelection interesting where the stakes of the candidates and parties is at stake.

Election Commission data says in 2022, the Gidderbaha constituency recorded 84.93% polling while in 2017, it was 88.79%.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Gidderbaha, which is constituent of Faridkot Lok Sabha seat, recorded 69.98% turnout that was higher than the state turnout average of 62.80%.

In 2012, a total of 88.73% of registered voters of the constituency had polled whereas the state average was 78.75%. Official data says in 2007 too, against the state average polling of 83.96%, Gidderbaha had recorded 87.33% voter turnout.

Amrita Warring, Dimpy Dhillon greet each other

AAP candidate Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon and Congress nominee Amrita Warring came across each other at gurdwara Guptsar Sahib at Chhateana village where they greeted each other. After a brief chat in the presence of mediapersons, the electoral opponents wished luck for the polling day.

Among the three key contestants, only AAP nominee Dhillon casted his vote. A resident of Gidderbaha town, Dhillon exercised his franchise just before noon while the Congress candidate Amrita Warring and the BJP’s Manpreet Singh Badal are not the registered voters in Gidderbaha segment.