Jailed separatist Amritpal Singh, detained under the National Security Act in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail, has been assigned the ‘mike’ symbol to contest the Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate from the Khadoor Sahib seat. Arrested in April 2023, Amritpal, the chief of the ‘Waris Punjab De’ outfit, is among 169 independent candidates who received election symbols out of 328 contenders.
In another instance, Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, an independent candidate running for the Faridkot (reserve) constituency, has been allotted the ‘Ganna Kisan’ (sugarcane farmer) symbol. Khalsa is the son of Beant Singh, one of the assassins of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Punjab Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sibin C announced that district election officials have distributed symbols to all 328 candidates for Punjab’s 13 Lok Sabha seats, as directed by the Election Commission of India.
The Punjab CEO detailed that independent candidates received a variety of election symbols, including harmonium, dumbbells, apple, and more. Gurdaspur has 26 candidates, 14 of whom are independents, while Amritsar has 30 candidates with 18 independents. The Khadoor Sahib seat sees 27 candidates, including 18 independents. Punjab will vote in the last phase of the seven-phased general elections on June 1, with the vote count on June 4.
Post Your Comments