Chandigarh: A low turnout of 44.41 per cent was recorded in the bypoll to Punjab's Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency, according to official figures released on Friday morning. Voting was held on Thursday from 8 am to 6 pm, and until late evening, the provisional figures stood at 37.01 per cent. Polling officials had earlier said that the numbers might increase once the data was compiled.
The Sangrur Lok Sabha seat had recorded 72.44 per cent polling in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Most of the nine assembly segments of the constituency recorded poor turnout throughout the day. Earlier in a tweet, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had demanded that the Election Commission should extend the voting time till 7 pm. He said many people were working in the fields until late due to the paddy-sowing season.
Following this, the Election Commission asked Punjab's chief secretary and the deputy commissioner of Sangrur to explain why they sought an extension of the polling time towards the closing hours. It amounted to an "attempt of unduly interfering in the election process and influence certain class of voters by conveying them to expedite voting or wait for time extension," the poll body said.
The commission condemns such behaviour by the officers during the election process, it added. The bypoll was necessitated following the resignation of Bhagwant Mann from the Lok Sabha after he was elected as an MLA in the state assembly elections earlier this year. Mann had won the Sangrur seat in the 2014 and the 2019 parliamentary elections.