Election Commission has issued prohibition orders in Punjab starting from 5pm today evening (AFP)
The Election Commission has imposed prohibition orders in Punjab, which will go to polls from February 4, from today evening. The prohibition will be effective from 5 pm and will end after the voting process finishes on Saturday.
Punjab Chief Electoral Officer VK Singh said that the guidelines have been issued in accordance with the provisions enacted in Section 126 of Representation of Peoples' Act.
As per the guidelines, the ongoing campaigning in all the 117 assembly constituencies and Amritsar Lok Sabha by-election would come to an end 48 hours prior to the polling date.
"Subsequently all the political leaders, functionaries or party workers who are not the registered voters will have to vacate the constituency within this period," Mr Singh said.
He said that necessary guidelines have been issued to the police and civil administration all across the state to ensure that outsiders who are not required should leave immediately.
The main contest is among the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine, the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The state will witness several high-octane contests wherein incumbent Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will take on his predecessor, Congress' Amarinder Singh, in the former's constituency of Lambi, and AAP MP Bhagwant Mann will challenge Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal for the latter's Jalalabad seat.
Former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu will also contest as a Congress candidate from Amritsar East. The Congress seeks to regain the state from the SAD-BJP alliance, which has ruled Punjab for nearly a decade, while the AAP - which won all of its four Lok Sabha seats in 2014 from the state - expects to make quite a debut.
The counting on votes will take place on March 11.
With inputs from IANS