Chandigarh: The Election Commission on Monday postponed the assembly bypolls in Punjab from November 13 to November 20 in the wake of festival season.
The four assembly seats going to polls in Punjab are – Gidderbaha, Barnala, Dera Baba Nanak and Chabbewal. These four seats had fallen vacant after the MLAs representing them were elected to the Lok Sabha in June this year.
It may be recalled that while candidates including ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and BJP are in the fray, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on has decided that it would not contest the upcoming bypolls for the four seats in Punjab following the recent order of the Akal Takht - the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs - on SAD chief Sukhbir Badal which declared him ``tankhaiya’’ (guilty of religious misconduct) and barred him from contesting elections.
The Akal Takht had recently declared him "tankhaiya’’ for the "mistakes’’ committed by his party and government during its rule from 2007 to 2017. Various parties including Congress had urged the election commission to reschedule the said elections in view of various festivals saying that the same could adversely impact the voters’ turnout.
In Punjab, the parties had urged the Election commission to consider deferring the November 13 bypolls in view of the Guru Nanak Dev birth anniversary being on November 15. They said that since the celebrations of the festival extend over three days and would start on November 13, the same could affect the voter turnout.
