Punjab bypoll: Tarn Taran to witness multi-cornered contest on Nov 11

Chandigarh, Oct 6 (PTI) With the Election Commission announcing the Tarn Taran bypoll on Monday, the assembly segment in Punjab is set for a multi-cornered contest.

The Tarn Taran assembly seat, which fell vacant after the death of AAP MLA Kashmir Singh Sohal in June, will go to polls along with eight other constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Punjab, Telangana and Rajasthan on November 11.

Votes will be counted on November 14.

The Tarn Taran bypoll will be the seventh assembly by-election in Punjab since March 2022. The ruling AAP has won five of the six bypolls held so far.

Major political parties have already announced their candidates for the bypoll.

The AAP has named Harmeet Singh Sandhu, three-time MLA from Tarn Taran, as its candidate. He won the seat as an Independent in 2002 and on Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) tickets in 2007 and 2012.

He unsuccessfully contested elections from Tarn Taran in 2017 and 2022, when the AAP's Kashmir Singh Sohal won the seat. Harmeet Singh Sandhu joined the AAP in July.

The Congress has fielded Karanbir Singh Burj, who will be contesting his first election. An agriculturalist and a real estate businessman, Burj is the vice-president of the Tarn Taran district Congress committee.

The SAD has named Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa as its nominee for the bypoll while the BJP has picked its Tarn Taran district unit president Harjit Singh Sandhu.

The Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De), led by jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, has not yet named its candidate. Tarn Taran assembly seat is part of the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha constituency.

Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C said the Election Commission (EC) has announced the schedule for the by-election to Tarn Taran assembly constituency and with this, the model code of conduct has come into force.

According to the schedule issued by the EC, the notification for the bypoll will be issued on October 13.

The last date for filing nominations is October 21 and the scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on October 22. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is October 24.

Nomination papers can be filed on any working day between October 13 and October 21, except on October 19 (Sunday) and October 20 (Diwali), the chief electoral officer said. PTI CHS DIV DIV