New Delhi: Assembly elections will now be held in Punjab on February 20. Earlier these elections were to be held on February 14. The Election Commission took this decision after meeting today. There has been no change in the date of counting of votes. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. The election results of the remaining four states will also come on the same day. On January 13, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi had appealed to the Election Commission to extend the date of polling by six days.
Actually, February 16 is the birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas. Therefore, political parties said that the people of the Scheduled Caste (SC) community would go to Banaras on this day. Apart from Channi, the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally Shiromani Akali Dal (United) had appealed to the Election Commission to extend the date of the election.
Devotees will go to Banaras
Let us tell you that there are 20 lakh scheduled caste people living in Punjab. Recently, Chief Minister Channi had said that from February 10 to 16, a large number of scheduled caste devotees from the state are likely to go to Banaras in Uttar Pradesh. In such a situation, many people of this community will not be able to vote in the state assembly elections. But now the Election Commission has accepted all the parties.
Photo of Punjab assembly
The term of the Punjab Legislative Assembly is ending on 27 March 2022. Let us tell you that in the 2017 assembly elections in 117-seat Punjab, Congress returned to power after 10 years by winning 77 seats. The Akali Dal-BJP alliance was reduced to only 18 seats. Aam Aadmi Party became the main opposition party by winning 20 seats. It is being said that this time the Aam Aadmi Party can give a tough competition to other parties.
